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September 2026 Training Series
Peer Support Group
Facilitator Training
Learn how to facilitate peer-led support groups with care, confidence, and compassion. Join us for an empowering two-day experience.
Two-Day Training
Sept 12 & 13, 2026 (Sat & Sun)
10 Hours Total
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Pacific each day
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INTRODUCTION
About the Training
Dates & Schedule
One ticket includes both days
DAY 1 — FOUNDATIONS, LISTENING, AND EMPATHY
Saturday, September 12, 2026
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Pacific
DAY 2 — GROUP DYNAMICS, CHALLENGING MOMENTS, AND BOUNDARIES
Sunday, September 13, 2026
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Pacific
10 hours of Guided Learning
This interactive course is fully immersive, blending lecturing with practical peer support simulation labs.
Grounding connection, mutuality, and lived experience
in supportive community care.
Peer support is fundamentally grounded in connection, mutuality, lived experience, respect, and hope. In group settings, peer support facilitators help create spaces where people feel welcomed, heard, and supported — without needing to "fix", diagnose or give advice.
This interactive training explores the role of a peer support group facilitator andoffers practical tools for holding supportive, inclusive, and compassionategroup spaces.
Participants will have opportunities to reflect, discuss, practice vital active-listening and communication skills, and learn alongside others who areinterested in peer support and community care. Whether you hope to volunteerwith Kaleidoscope, support a peer-led initiative in your community, or begindeveloping your own group, this training will help you build a strong, reliablefoundation.
Lived Experience Wisdom
Active listening & Presence
Non-Clinical Support
Safe Boundary Holding
CURRICULUM
What You’ll Learn
Our comprehensive schedule spans over two intensive days, dividing 10 major key competencies. Click on a card to learn more, or check them off to visual-track your syllabus progress!
Understand the historical roots, philosophical guidelines, and core values of peer-led mental health movements.
Learn how to hold space as a facilitator, distinguishing peer support from clinical treatment, fixing, or advice-giving.
Practice deep, non-judgmental presence and reflection styles to help peers feel genuinely heard and validated.
Identify common speaking and hearing traps. (such as diagnosing, silver-lining, and interrupting) and how to avoid them.
Cultivate the ability to connect with another person's emotional state without taking it on as your own responsibility.
Discover tools to guide group focus, manage speaking time equitably, and encourage comfortable, quite inclusion.
Acknowledge diverse lived experiences and cultivate safety by employing accessible, anti-oppressive, and humble practices.
Learn compassionate boundary-setting techniques for handling high-emotion, conflict, or over-sharing during group sessions.
Prepare to support an individual in crisis through a peer-lens, aligning with warm safety protocols while respecting autonomy.
Navigate personal triggers, define clear facilitator boundaries, and practice essential self-care routines.
AUDIENCE FIT
Who This Training Is For
No prior facilitation or professional counseling experience is required to attend.
We assume everyone has valuable knowledge to share.
No Prior Experience Required
We welcome any community member wanting to understand peer support, hold safe space, and gain supportive tools.
OPEN ENROLLMENT EVENT
Individuals with Lived Experience
Those with lived or living experience of mental health challenges, substance use, recovery, distress, neurodivergence, or other journey milestones.
The Peer Support Curious
Anyone curious about peer-led mental health
services and community-based circle models of mutual aid.
Aspiring Group Facilitators
People who are passionate about learning how to host and guide a supportive peer-led community group with care.
Community Organizers
People wanting to kick-start and resource new
independent support groups in their immediate neighborhoods or organizations.
Volunteers & Helping Professionals
Volunteers, students, community builders, or care
practitioners looking to enrich their practice with
non-clinical peer support models.
PATHWAY 01 - VOLUNTEER WITH US
Volunteering with Kaleidoscope
After completing this training, participants who are interested in volunteering with Kaleidoscope may become eligible to apply as peer support group facilitators after attending three Kaleidoscope peer support groups.
This gives participants a chance to experience Kaleidoscope’s group culture, values, and facilitation approach before stepping into a volunteer role.
Volunteer opportunities are based on organizational needs, fit, readiness,and available group spaces. Completing the training does not guarantee avolunteer placement, but it is an important first step in the pathway.
Attend Full Training
Attend 3 Groups
Apply as Facilitator
PATHWAY 02 - COMMUNITY INTEGRATION
Starting Your Own Peer Support Group
This training can also support people who want to start a peer support group outside of Kaleidoscope.
You will leave with a clearer understanding of what peer support is, what facilitators do, and what helps make a group space safer, more inclusive, and more supportive.
While this training is introductory, it can help you begin thinking through thevalues, structure, and practices needed to develop a peer-led group inyour own setting (workplaces, student clubs, local neighborhood nodes, orcommunity centers).
WHAT YOU'LL WALK AWAY WITH:
•
Interactive skills workbook & guidelines
•
Group structure outline template
•
Boundary checklist & safety protocol frameworks
OUR CORE PHILOSOPHY
Our Approach to Peer Support
We believe peer support is not about having all the answers. It is about creating spaces where people can be met with dignity,understanding, and possibility.
Foundations
Placing mutuality at the center.
By acknowledging that each participant holds equal stake and wisdom, our circles provide safe and horizontal networks of peer connection.
7 CORE PILLARS
01. Lived Experience as Knowledge
We honor your lived experience with mental health, distress, or recovery as uniquely valuable, legitimate wisdom.
02. Mutuality & Shared Learning
Peer spaces collapse top-down hierarchies. We are both teachers and learners, walking alongside one another.
03. Compassionate Listening
We provide deep, attentive presence focused on sharing understanding rather than diagnosing or offering quick-fix advice.
04. Respect for Autonomy
We trust that you are the primary expert of your own life and choices. We do not prescribe solutions or label paths.
05. Inclusion, Accessibility & Belonging
We design spaces where diverse neurotypes, backgrounds, and identities feel valued, comfortable, and respected.
06. Hope, Connection & Community Care
We believe healing happens in relationships. Cultivating genuine relational bonds helps rebuild social warmth and strength.
07. Trauma-Informed & Culturally Humble
We continuously learn and adapt to offer sensitive spaces that respect the complexity of individuals' social landscapes.
PARTICIPATION ENROLLMENT
Register for Facilitator Training
Secure your registration in the two-day training course. Direct admission passes will be generated immediately upon confirmation.
Information: Completing this form reserves your seat. Support spaces are limited. If your plans change, you
can return to this page to release your ticket.
Accessibility & Participation Policy
We aim to create a learning environment that is welcoming, participatory, and accessible. Participants are invited to engage in ways that feel manageable for they themselves.
There will be opportunities for discussion, reflection, and practice, but participants will never be pressured to share personal experiences beyond their comfort level.
We maintain active accessibility standards: live closed captioning support, hourly screen breaks, visual description of graphics, and optional camera/microphone presence.
Have any remaining questions?
Have questions about the training, accessibility, volunteering, or
whether this is the right fit for your mental health facilitation goals?
Typically responds within 24–48 hours. Let us help you learn with comfort.
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