Peer Support Accreditation, Information, and Resources

• Peer Support Canada – operated through CMHA – connects peer supporters and organizations, helping share information and building capacity for peer support. They have Standards of Practice Certification for Peer Supporters and organize an annual conference.
  • BC CMHA Peer Employment Project – includes links to other peer resources, a report, a literature review, power assessment framework, and employer checklist. 
  • CMHA Waterloo Wellington Centre for Excellence in Peer Support – includes further links to information on peer support and on implementing, supervising and supporting peer roles, including a toolkit.
• Peer Works – Our members are mental health Consumer/Survivor Initiatives and Peer Support Organizations across Ontario. These organizations are run by and for people with lived experience of a mental health issue or addiction issue. Offer on-line Peer Training and Webinars and a Conference and other resources.
• C4 Innovations – Integrating Peer Workers – website page with training, videos and other  resources
• National Youth Mentorship and Peer Navigation Handbook (Point Source Youth, 2023) – this 40 page handbook was developed to train and support hundreds of youth mentors to provide peer navigation and support related to HIV prevention, treatment, care and housing to QTBIPOC youth.
• Guidance for Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining People with Lived Experience and Expertise of Homelessness (HUD, March 2022) – a two-page document that includes an overview, getting started, key recruitment, hiring, and retention considerations, and potential challenges.
• C4 Innovations – Integrating Peer Workers – website page with training, videos and other resources
• Supervising Peer Workers Toolkit (2019) – from the CMHA Waterloo-Wellington Self-Help and Peer Support website
• Peer Support: A Tool for Recovery in Homeless Services (FEANTSA) – a 10-page policy paper providing a description, rationale and tips
• Centre of Excellence in Peer Support (Australia) – a website with a description of peer support, resources, training, and recent research
• Pillars of Youth Peer Support (Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health and the Community Suicide Prevention Network of Ottawa, 2018) – a nine-part video learning series co-developed with youth and community experts designed to introduce young people to key elements of youth peer support. Also includes a Facilitation Support Guide.
• Guidelines for the Practice and Training of Peer Support (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2013) – a 50-page document that provides a background, guidelines for practice and guidelines for training
• Centre for Innovation in Peer Support: Improving Lives in Mississauga and Halton (supported by the Evidence Exchange Network of CAMH)

Peer Work in Housing First

• Why We Hire Peer Specialists as Staff in Housing First (Canadian Housing First Toolkit Module, 2018) – provides information about the roles and services of the peer specialists on Housing First teams
• Toronto CAMH – Peer Work in Housing First (CAMH webinar – Dec 2018)
• Ottawa Options Bytown: Peer Work in Housing First (CAEH18 presentation)
• Victoria Pacifica Housing – Peer Work in Housing First (CAEH18 Presentation)
• RainCity Housing – Entirely peer-led Housing First ICM Team – Surrey (see also on website)
• Housing First Peer Support Specialist sample job descriptions:
  • Pathways Housing First
  • Toronto Housing First
  • RainCity Housing – ACT Team Peer Specialist & ICM Team Peer Specialist
  • Waterloo Housing Support Coach – Peer Role

Further Peer Work Examples and resources from Communities

• RainCity Housing – Peer Work:
  • Entirely peer-led Housing First ICM Team – Surrey (see also on website)
  • Peer Services
  • Peer Witnessing
• Ottawa Shepherd’s of Good Hope Peer Work:
  • Shepherds of Good Hope Implementing Peer Support in Outreach Report
  • Peer Program Checklist
  • Peer Support Worker – Application

national Groups

• People with Lived Experience Institute (US) – an umbrella to bring together local, national, and global leadership partners to share best practices.

Training for people with lived experience

• PeerWorks Training and Professional Development (Ontario based) – Peer Support Core Essentials – 17 on-line, live webinars that include individual exercises, group exercises, trainer-led discussion, and role playing along with homework, which involves readings, reflections, and skills practice.
• Lived Experience Training Academy (US National Coalition for the Homeless) – 12 to 16 hours of on-line professional development that equips you with the tools and resources you need to make your voice the centerpiece of strategy and advocacy.

Toolkits and Guides

• Materials from former Canadian lived experience groups:
  • Lived Experience Leadership Network – CLELN Lived Experience Declaration of Rights Zine 2022
  • Lived Experience Advisory Council: (Homeless Hub page) – provides background and links to the two resources below
    • Nothing About Us Without Us: Seven Principles for Leadership and Inclusion of People with Lived Experience of Homelessness (2016)
    • Checklist for Planning Inclusive and Accessible Events (2016)
• People with Lived Experience and Expertise of Homelessness and Data Decision-Making Toolkit (HUD, 2024) – This toolkit offers suggestions on how People with Lived Experience and Expertise homelessness (PLEE), community partners, and system leaders can partner on data projects and additional local data decision-making efforts. It includes resources on partnership practices, compensation, and training.
• A Toolkit for Creating Authentic, Effective Partnerships between Organizations and People with Lived Experiences (UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, 2024) – a 50 page toolkit with sections on the spectrum of engagement, opportunities and challenges, considerations before putting together a lived experience advisory board, and the nuts and bolds of creating a group.
• Paying People with Lived Experience and Expertise (HUD, June 2022) – a three page guide that includes the “why’s”, approaching the conversation, and considerations.
• Engaging People with Lived Experience of Inequities: Meeting Facilitation Guide (People With Lived Experience, 2020) – a 13 page guide that includes sections on: purposeful preparation, agenda building, meeting facilitation, group activities, and theory to practice: People with Lived Experience Co-Leadership Team
• Toolkits for communities by communities for creating lived experience/expertise groups:
  • Toolkit for Communities: Considerations for Creating Lived Experience Circle on Homelessness (Penticton, BC, 2023) – This toolkit evolved from a community-based research project in the community of Penticton, BC. and was developed by a collaborative research team that partnered individuals with lived experience of homelessness, student researchers and academics knowledgeable in Lived Experience Circles (LECs) and community-engaged research approaches. It was designed to support small cities and rural communities interested in creating advisory groups of people with lived or living experience (PWLLE) of homelessness to provide input/context on community policy, program development, or evaluation. 
  • People with Lived Experience Engagement Toolkit (BC Capital Regional District, 2017)
  • Lived Experience as Expertise: Considerations in the Development of Advisory Groups of People with Lived Experience of Homelessness or Poverty (Region of Waterloo, 2012)
• Toolkits from 100 Million Healthier Lives (2019)
  • Engaging People with Lived Experience: Pre-relationship to Relationship Building Assessment Tool and Resource Guide
  • Engaging People with Live Experience: Relationship Building
• Engaging People with Lived Experience: A Guide for Including People in Poverty Reduction (Tamarack, 2019) – assess your readiness to engage people, 10 ideas for engagement, 10 stories that inspire, 10 really useful resources, 10 ways to get started
• Scale Project (USA)
  • Engaging Community Residents with Lived Experience: Summary Report (2017)
  • Toolkit for Engaging Community Members with Lived Experience (website)
• Moving Forward Together Series (Laura Prescott and Leah Harris, SAMSHA)
  • Moving Forward Together: Introduction
  • Why Integrate People with Experiences of Homelessness
  • Challenges to Consumer Integration
  • Create a Range of Opportunities for Consumer Integration: Step 1 – The Strategic Plan
  • Create a Range of Opportunities for Consumer Integration: Step 2 – Identify Socially Valued Roles
  • Create a Range of Opportunities for Consumer Integration: Step 3 – Building Capacity in the Early Stages
• Youth Specific
  • Youth Centred Design Toolkit – Unicef Canada – on-line resource
  • Youth Collaboration Toolkit (True Colors Fund USA, 2016)
  • Youth Rights! Right Now!: Ending Youth Homelessness (AWH, COH and Canada Without Poverty, 2016)

CAEH Webinars

• Lived Experience & Ending Homelessness Webinar (April 2021) (PDF)
• Nothing About Us Without Us: Community Examples of Engaging Lived Experience (April 2021)

At Home/Chez Soi Materials

• At Home/Chez Soi Lived Experience Advisory Circle
• Meaningful inclusion of consumers in research and service delivery (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 36, 180-186, 2013)
• Stigma, Discrimination, and PWLE Knowledge Discussion Report (At Home/Chez Soi, National Consumer Panel, 2013)
• Vancouver Peer Reference Group Report on Peer Support for Homelessness and Mental Health (MHCC, 2013)

Podcasts

• Out of the Blue: Lived Expert and Child Welfare Advocate Cheyanne Ratnam (October 2019)

Blogs

• Maytree – blog series on rights-based participation of, and accountability to, people with lived experience of poverty in policy processes:
  • Six ideas on designing advisory councils for the participation of experts with lived/living experience (Aug 2019)
  • How informed participation helps tenants fight for their rights: A look at FMTAs Tenant School (Jun 2019)
  • Four strategies to strengthen the leadership of lived experts in an advocacy network (Apr 2019)
  • What Housing Practitioners Can Learn from Tenant Leadership and Participation at Lawrence Heights (Mar 2019)
  • Challenging Exclusion: Experts with Lived Experience of Homelessness Transforming Policy Processes (Feb 2019)
  • Exploring the Role of People with Lived Experience of Poverty in Finding Solutions to Poverty (Jan 2019)
• USICH – deepening your partnership with people with lived experience:
  • Beyond Mere Principle: Strategies for Truly Partnering with People Who Have Lived Experience in Our Work (Mar 2019)
  • The Value of Lived Experience in the Work to End Homelessness (Jul 2018)
• OrgCode – Input from Persons with Lived Experience (2012)
• Bringing Lived Experience to a Regional Housing Authority (King County, June 2020)

Community Examples of Lived Experience Advisory and/or Speakers Groups

• Kelowna BC – Bright Spot on lived experience participation (2020)
• Edmonton Homeward Trust – Participant Advisory Committee
• Vancouver’s MegaPhone Magazine Speakers Bureau
• Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Speakers Bureau
• Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness – PWLE Caucus – Report (2018)
• Waterloo Region:
  • Participant Advisory Group (materials coming soon)
  • Respectful Language Guide (2012) – see page 2
  • Lived Experience as Expertise: Considerations in the Development of Advisory Groups of People with Lived Experience of Homelessness or Poverty (Region of Waterloo, 2012)