Campus peer support training for a national charity

A training for students, shaped by students

The Canadian Mental Health Association is Canada’s most established national mental health charity, working across communities, campuses, and workplaces nationwide. CMHA National wanted a peer support training for post-secondary and campus settings, grounded in national competencies and international best practice, and genuinely shaped by young people rather than written for them. They came to Habitus to build it.

Challenges

CMHA National wanted a campus peer support training that would speak to student life and the realities young people face, while being grounded in recognised national peer support competencies and international best practice. It needed to be genuinely co-produced with young people, so the content, the language, and the scenarios rang true for the people who would use it. And CMHA National wanted to own the training outright, so it could be delivered and scaled with post-secondary institutions across the country, and adapted for other audiences in future rather than rebuilt from scratch each time.

What we did

We built the campus training with young people at the centre, and gave CMHA National more than a course: a complete, co-produced package it owns, a foundation designed to adapt and scale to new audiences, and a way of working with young people it could carry into future development.

Co-produced with CMHA’s youth advisory. The training was shaped through co-development sessions with CMHA National’s youth advisory, and we coached and co-facilitated the training with their internal staff. The young people’s input ran right through the materials: every scenario across the modules was written or reworked on their advice, creative content was proposed and endorsed by them, and whole sessions were rewritten to get the language, context, and priority right for a campus audience. The course duration, session lengths, and teaching methods were all adapted on their advice. The young people who took part are acknowledged by name in the final training.

Grounded in competencies and best practice. We built the training on Peer Support Canada’s national peer support competencies and international best practice, so it was credible, consistent with recognised standards, and ready to be shared and scaled with post-secondary institutions across the country.

A complete training package. We delivered a full facilitator guide and a student guide, ready to deliver.

Designed to adapt and scale. We also built the training so CMHA National could get more than a single course out of it. The competency-based core stays consistent while the scenarios flex to each audience, so CMHA National owns one solid foundation it can adapt for future groups rather than developing new training from scratch, opening the door to further co-development down the line.

How we made a difference

CMHA National came away with a complete, co-produced campus peer support training it owns and can scale with post-secondary institutions nationally. Because it was built with young people, it reflects how they actually talk, what they actually face, and what good peer support looks like in their world. And because of how it was designed, it is not only a campus course, it is a foundation CMHA National can adapt for new audiences over time.

Results

• A complete campus peer support training, with a facilitator guide and a student guide, ready to deliver

• Content co-produced with CMHA National’s youth advisory, with young people’s input running through every module and the contributors acknowledged by name

• Training grounded in national competencies and international best practice, ready to share and scale with post-secondary institutions nationally

• A competency-based foundation CMHA National owns and can adapt for future audiences by swapping scenarios, rather than rebuilding from scratch

Greg Kyllo, National Director of Program Innovation: "Thanks for being you!"

Habitus has extensive experience co-producing peer support training with the people it is for, grounded in recognised competencies and built to last. For more information on how Habitus can support your organisation or network to develop lived experience and peer leadership, contact us.