The Toronto Peer Network
In Toronto? You are Invited. The Toronto Peer Network is a working google group of Peer Supporters actively involved in supporting one another as a cross-sectoral community of new Peer Workers. Toronto is an emerging hub of Peer Support despite being a centre for health and social services.
At the Toronto Peer Network we identify as a community learning about one anothers programs for our Peers to connect to, grow best practices among our new Peer organizations piloting Peer support programs and form a living Directory of newly employed Peer Supporters together with Peer Mentors to learn from.
Peer Supporters - Please join us at The Toronto Peer Network
Please complete the survey below to include your organization, or if you are interested in, or emerging as, a Peer organization:
Survey of Toronto Peer Support organizations/individual Peer Supporters
Shelter, Out of Homelessness, and Housing Peer Organizations
Violence Against Women/Gender-based Peer Support Organizations
Mental Health Wellness Peer Support Organizations
Out of Law Involvement/Social Justice Peer Support Organizations
PEER HOUSE TORONTO: Our New Central Resource for Peers to Find What they are looking for
Introducing Peer House Toronto at PeerHouse.ca
Peer House Toronto is a collaborative central hub for Toronto Peers to find accessible Peer Supporters, Peer Support groups, Peer Support training, Self-help wellness, financial and housing resources.
Peer House Toronto is recommended by Peers, for Peers and is community developed through monthly forums of Lived and Living Experience People who decide the content and design of the hub.
It is for the Toronto complex homeless community to self-discover resources - but is anything online accessible to our most vulnerable population? A goal of Peer House Toronto is to help more Peers access online wellness and recovery knowledge that includes Peer Support. Together, one Peer at a time, we can make change in overcoming barriers to online knowledge that supports health in Toronto.
Ready to create a Peer House hub in your area of Canada? We want to hear from you as a Peer Leader.
PeerHouse.ca has Peer-recommended and Peer-led:
Peer House is online to empower Peers, and give Living Experience People back control of their recovery in a Peer community where understanding, belonging and inclusion are a day-to-day way toward independence and wellness.
Mentor/Mentee Canada’s ongoing Panel Discussion series:
LATEST WEBINARS
FEBRUARY 2023 - PEER PROGRAM INNOVATORS - A VICTORIA STRONG PANEL DISCUSSION
NOVEMBER 2022 - mentor/mentee canada and peer house toronto - a template for lived experience leadership
OCTOBER 2022 - EXPLORING LEADERSHIP IN THE PEER MOVEMENT
MARCH 2022: Peer Houses - Leadership from the USA
MAY 2022: Peer Houses II - new RESEARCH from pEER HOUSES
What if we had actual Peer Houses in Canada? A place of respite for short-term stays to prevent - or recover - from crisis. Peer Houses are inspiring as such throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, welcoming Peers to voluntarily drop in to receive Peer Support service - and stay to heal.
We heard from PEOPLE USA - across New York State to across America, and IRIS PLACE in rural Wisconsin - both Leaders to learn from in gap housing Lived Experience developed and run solutions for wellness. Peers avoid crisis, and recover from crisis, within a holistic Peer Supportive and skilled environment all based on Peer Values and Principles of wellness.
AND
We heard from CSPNJ, Collaborative Support Programs New Jersey, who’s leadership presented their holistic service entirely run by professional Peers. All Lived Experience staffed - including their Executive Director and Program Manager.
Anne Smullen Thieling: Deputy Director of Collaborative Support Programs New Jersey.
Dr. Peggy Swarbrick: A pioneer and Peer Researcher in the field of Peer Work. Dr. Swarbrick’s 8 dimentions of wellness is still a leading plan in recovery today - evidenced by those they have welcomed to their Peer House as wellness leaders - and as a model for us here in Canada.
Invite Peer Supporters
“By having Peer Workers on interdisciplinary teams, we sometimes find ourselves in a position where we need to question the status quo, which can feel uncomfortable.
But in the end, the status quo should always be open to investigation without feeling threatened. This can help form strong healthy bonds within the team and promote creative individualized client-centred approaches.
At CAMH, we all want more. We want to do more. We want to do better. CAMH’s pursuit of excellence would be less robust if Peer Support Workers weren’t here.”
UNITING PEER SUPPORT VOICE for Employment Role growth across Sectors.
COLLABORATING BETWEEN SECTORS to show the way of recovery through Peer Support.
JOIN THE PEER MOVEMENT in Lived expertise inclusion in research, planning, service delivery and leadership. We won’t be able to make needed change otherwise.
PEER SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS (TORONTO) Discover More at PeerHouse.ca
Ontario Brain Injury Association
Centre for Innovation in Peer Support’s Support House
PeerWorks (formerly The Ontario Peer Development Initiative)
Ontario Caregivers Association
ConnexOntario.ca - a guide to Mental Health services including Peer Support
Invite Peers
WHAT DOES A PEER SUPPORT PILOT PROJECT LOOK LIKE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION ?
How Can You Become a Peer Employment Development Organization in 2023?
Complimenting case management and counselling, a Peer Support and mentoring pilot is coordinated with as little or as much involvement as the piloting organization requests. The flexible peer model is open to remaining separately supervised and report to you - or will welcome your own involvement.
Case Managers, Counselors, Social Workers, and Supportive Housing Workers are invited to refer their clients interested in obtaining Peer Support service, or Peer Support training. Seamless communication of Mentor and Mentee reports and surveys can be provided to the Case Manager as they continue to maintain overall management.
On site at your organization or off site and online virtually, Mentor/Mentee Canada is flexible and will work with you to best serve you and your clients.
Curious about Client’s Interest? Invite an information desk or an introductory presentation to come to your organisation in person, or virtually.
Do you know someone who wants help making positive changes in your organisation and who may want a Mentor?
Mentoring programmes can be hugely rewarding for both the Mentee and the Mentor, and are essential during Covid-19 as societies become more and more complex and impersonal.
HOW WILL MENTOR/MENTEE CANADA HELP YOUR ORGANISATION ?
Adding mentoring/a professional Peer Supporter or Peer Model to your organization’s program is high value, low cost, relevant and accessible. Peer Support and Mentoring encourages clients self learning toward self- empowerment, self-management, self-therapy and can instigate self-actuating independence and wellness.
Preparing your Clients for Employment begins with Mentor/Mentee Canada’s foundational recovery and employment Peer Support Training Program.
