Peer Support Core Essentials – PeerWorks

PeerWorks Peer Support Core Essentials™ Program involves 17 two-hour live webinars led by PSC certified trainers that will build foundational skills for offering peer support. 

This training program has been developed in consultation with the subject experts: Consumer/Survivor Initiatives and Peer Support Organizations across Ontario. Its focus is on strengthening and nurturing what is at the core of peer support: the peer supporter.

These interactive sessions include individual exercises, group exercises, trainer-led discussion, and role playing. Outside of these sessions there is some homework, which includes readings, reflections, and skills practice. Attendance is mandatory at all 17 webinars.

It should be noted that taking this training does not guarantee everyone an automatic “pass”. Participants are evaluated by the trainers, and the outcomes can range from “Incomplete” to “Level 1”, “Level 1R” and eventually earning “PeerWorks Certified Peer Supporter”.

Level 1 means the person attended and participated fully in the training and is deemed at this point appropriate to deliver an informal friendship style of peer support.

Level 1R means that the trainers are of the opinion the participant may be ready to work in a more formalized setting, and are Recommending that they proceed to an internship or practicum in which they deliver 50 hours of person to person support which is monitored and evaluated. It is not mandatory to do the practicum, but it is necessary for those who wish to earn the PeerWorks Certified Peer Supporter certificate.

For more information: PeerWorks – PSCE

To register: PeerWorks – Upcoming Events

Train the Trainer - Intentional Peer Support

Our Train-the-Trainer Course is a hands-on seminar designed to prepare and designate IPS Organizational Trainers.

These trainers can then teach the Core Content within their own organizations, helping to ensure the fidelity and sustainability of IPS.

The IPS Organizational Trainer pathway is best suited for organizations with 25 or fewer employees. For larger organizations, the scope of an IPS Organizational Trainer may be limited to specific programs or regions. If you work for a larger organization and are interested in becoming an IPS Organizational Trainer, please contact us for more information.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Advanced Training - Intentional Peer Support

We developed our 24-hour Advanced Training to take IPS practice a step further—playing out the principles and tasks using real-life scenarios, heightening self-reflection, enhancing ways of building mutual connections and sustaining the practice.

Intentional Peer Support requires an ongoing commitment to learning and growth. Once participants complete a Core Training and begin practicing IPS in their relationships, lots of questions emerge—most commonly, “How do I make this stuff work in my particular environment?”

Deepen IPS Practice

Our Advanced Trainings are for anyone who has completed a Core Training or needs a brief IPS refresher and are tailored to fit your organization’s or community’s needs. 

Learn the Art of Co-Reflection

Co-reflection is a vital practice where people regularly come together to reflect on their relationships using the IPS framework. Here is an opportunity to examine relationships, look at assumptions and sustain the tasks and principles.

Our Core Training gets you started with Co-Reflection, and our Advanced Training helps you master it. Download our free Co-Reflection Guide.

Traditionally, crisis in mental health has been viewed as something undesirable or harmful, and risk assessment has led to fear-based responses that keep people stuck. In the Advanced Training, we focus on using crisis instead as an opportunity to connect, maintain mutuality, and create a culture of healing.

Respite programs will find particular use as we further explore what it means to be trauma-informed, work with conflict and challenging situations, develop flexible boundaries, use pro-active crisis planning and prepare for program evaluation.

Offered virtually over 6 days.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Managers & Supervisors Training - Intentional Peer Support

This online event is designed for those who manage or supervise peer support workers and programs. 

It deepens understanding of peer support dynamics and improves team effectiveness in fostering transformative relationships. Tailored to the IPS framework, this training equips participants to integrate IPS principles effectively into their workplace practice.

Duration: 6 days, held over 2 separate weeks (Tuesdays to Thursdays)

Our training is tailored to enhance the capabilities of managers and supervisors within the IPS framework. Participants will:

• Learn to apply IPS principles in management and supervisory roles.

• Explore challenges specific to overseeing peer support environments.

• Develop strategies for supporting staff and facilitating their growth.

• Understand how to integrate IPS values into everyday practice and team development.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Queer IPS (for LGBTQIA+) - Intentional Peer Support

This curriculum was adapted from the IPS core training at the request of the Q Corner, a peer support program in Santa Clara County, California, that supports LGBTQ+ community members.

Empowerment Through Stories:

IPS is about building relationships where our stories can be told and explored. By sharing our stories, we:

• Build networks of support.

• Create justice and empowerment.

• Drive social change rooted in civil rights movements, including gay liberation and the Stonewall riots.

"In the words of indigenous Australian activists in the 1970s, 'your liberation is bound up with mine.'"

Intersectionality:

Creating Space

QIPS was designed to acknowledge and support those of us whose gender, expression, and/or sexuality don’t fit within our society’s narrow definitions of “normal.” This includes individuals who have historically been marginalized by various systems such as education, employment, healthcare, and housing. 

From this vantage point, we examine how these systems have also marginalized those of us whose experiences of mental or emotional distress, “big feelings” or altered states don’t fit into societal definitions of “healthy.”

A Unique Intersection:

Participants in QIPS engage at the intersection of queer/trans communities and peer support. They:

• Learn the tasks and principles of IPS.

• Examine assumptions about who they are.

• Acknowledge personal and cultural histories of oppression and trauma.

• Focus on understanding “what happened” instead of “what’s wrong.”

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Core Training - Intentional Peer Support

The Core Training is our foundational training for learning and practicing Intentional Peer Support. This training is for anyone interested in mutual support and has been widely used for people working in both traditional and alternative mental health settings.

Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our Core Training is a 40-hour introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away.

In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” 

IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.

• Seek ways to connect, become aware of disconnects, and work to reconnect

• Explore how we have “come to know what we know”

• Strive for mutuality in relationships

• Stay curious, question assumptions, and own judgements and opinions

• Open up new ways of listening

• Use experience to relate and build trust

• Name and negotiate power in relationships

• Navigate conversations about suicide and self-injury

• Approach crisis as an opportunity to grow

• Share risk and responsibility

• Focus on the quality of relationships instead of fixing one another

• Pay attention to the impact of clinical and labeling language

• Understand how trauma affects lives

• Keep the energy in relationships moving towards what we want

• Understand peer support in the context of social change and social justice

• Learn to see altered states or non-consensual reality in new ways, and to connect with people having these experiences

Offered as a 10 day virtual session.

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

IPS Overview: An Introduction - Intentional Peer Support

This three-hour online overview course introduces participants to the history of IPS and the tasks and principles of this transformational framework.

The course provides an interactive platform for questions and discussions with facilitators and fellow participants.

Peers unite around shared experiences and a desire for change. However, without a new framework, people often recreate "help" based on their past experiences.

IPS offers a foundation for a different approach, rooted in grassroots alternatives that focus on building relationships that are mutual, explorative, and conscious of power dynamics.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive overview of IPS history and principles

• Interactive discussions with experienced facilitators

• Networking opportunities with like-minded individuals

• Introduction to a transformative framework for relationship-building

• Exploration of power dynamics in helping relationships

• Insights into creating mutual and explorative connections

For more information: IPS Workshops

To register: IPS Eventbrite Sessions

Peer Support Training Canada – Luminate Wellness

A high quality peer support training developed by Jenn Cusick, the developer of BC’s Peer Support Training curriculum.

Facilitator Jenn Cusick has managed peer support programs since 1999.

This training is inline with Peer Support Canada’s knowledge matrix and Standards of Practice.

With a deep foundation in developing peer support programs across British Columbia, our training is crafted to provide high-quality education grounded in best practices. Our program ensures that your peer support staff are equipped with skills that align with industry standards and foster meaningful, supportive connections within your organization.

Our Peer Support Training is tailored for peer support workers dedicated to serving individuals with mental health and substance use challenges. Peer support staff need skills and tools to support people with a peer lens. Often peer support is embedded in clinical settings, but peer support isn’t clinical–it’s about relationship, connection, and hope. To meet diverse needs, our program is available on a Zoom format. We can do some in-person session, but that will require travel. We can tailor the training to meet your time constraints and budget.

Our training is grounded in:

• The Core Values

• Supporting Self-Determination: The training fosters an environment of self-determination, where each person is honored as the expert on their own life. Participants learn to support without fixing, saving or advising, creating a space of autonomy, connection, and growth.

• Unpacking our Biases: We explore the roots of judgment, noticing and challenging our explicit and implicit biases. Peer supporters learn to navigate these biases, fostering open conversations that respect diverse perspectives.

• Cultural Humility: Our approach to cultural humility emphasizes self-reflection to recognize biases and approach each interaction from a stance of "not knowing."

• Trauma-Informed Communication: We explore what trauma is, and what it means to be trauma-informed, and how to communicate in a way that supports healing and prevents re-traumatization.

• Strength-Based Approach: The training focuses on recognizing and amplifying each person’s strengths and capacities.

• Self-Care for Peer Supporters: Effective peer support requires balance. We cover strategies to protect well-being, prevent burnout, and establish boundaries that allow for genuine, sustainable support.

To register: Luminate - PSTA

Edmonton Recovery College - CMHA-Edmonton

Courses developed and offered by individuals with lived experience around varying life topics.

The CMHA-Edmonton Recovery College offers a number of courses that are designed to support well-being and connection. All of the courses are created by an individual who has lived experience on the topic they want to educate about, in conjunction with a mental health professional to ensure that the courses are as beneficial as possible for participants. There are many available courses that rotate through over the course of a year. Some of these include Shades of Self-Disclosure; Be Kind, Embrace your Mind (Bite Size: Online); Hope Building 101 (In Person: Prosper Place); Journaling 101 (Bite Size: Online); Building Better Boundaries (Bite Size: Online); How to Feel Better About Yourself (Online: Full Size); etc.

To register: Recovery College Edmonton

Radical Mental Health Peer Support – CMHA-Edmonton Peer College

Learn the basics of being a peer support worker.

Radical Mental Health Peer Support course is a 15-hour course consisting of 6 modules that explore the fundamentals of peer support training and is offered multiple times each year.

For more information or to register for a course or elective please contact Christine Ellery at cellery@cmha-edmonton.ab.ca

School of Peer Support – CMHA-Edmonton Peer College

Build a fully developed skill-set around being a peer worker through both in-class instruction and a practicum component.

The School of Peer Support is a nine-month course that delves into the fundamentals of peer support including such areas as supportive listening, boundaries, system navigation, etc. This course is delivered once each week over 93 hours of in-class training (from mid-October to late June) followed by a 50-hour practicum.

For more information or to register for a course or elective please contact Christine Ellery at cellery@cmha-edmonton.ab.ca

Where We Are At – Peer Connect BC

A provincially approved curriculum that will train you to be a peer worker.

Where We Are At is a first of its kind, provincially approved curriculum that’s been guided and evaluated by existing peer support organizations and people with lived experience in the province – from start to finish. The training is made up of 16 modules that focus on the peer support worker role. It’s designed to enhance your support worker training and to ensure quality and consistency across British Columbia. In every module, the goal is the same: to help you internalize these important concepts so you can use them in your own work settings. 

The Provincial Peer Support Training Curriculum course takes approximately 40 hours to complete. To receive a Certificate of Completion you must first register for the course on the Registration page to create an account.

To register: Peer Connect BC