The GraceWins Mental Health Peer Supporter Training is based on Peer2Peer, a well established European Commission-funded vocational training collaborative comprising eight organizations from across Europe. With Peer2Peer as the foundation, our training evolves as we grow in knowledge and experience from running this course, learning from our own peer support practice, as well as from various other peer support learning sources. The training is conducted in small groups of no more than 8 people to maximize the group learning dynamic. It is facilitated to encourage conversation by participants and draws on their own lived experiences. The training comprises 12-14 weekly classes of an hour-and-a-half each.
For Whom: Persons with lived experience of mental health challenges that have a desire to serve as peer supporters and, who, we believe, possess the attributes to become highly effective peer supporters.
By Whom: The GraceWins Mental Health Peer Supporter Training has been developed and is delivered by GraceWins Peer Supporter, Percy D’Souza. Percy is a Peer Support Canada certified peer supporter and community mental health advocate. An ‘ex-severe, treatment-resistant, psychotic depressive’, Percy has facilitated courses at the Recovery Colleges in Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences and CMHA Durham. He has served on various mental health-related committees in Durham including Lakeridge Health and Ontario Shores and is presently a member of the Lakeridge Mental Health & Addictions Consumer Advisory Panel.
Date: Thursdays: Starts Thursday, November 12, 2026: 14 weeks
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Online: Google Meet
Fee: $300 or pay what you can
We are a charitable, not-for-profit organization that offers our peer support services at NO CHARGE to anyone that could benefit from them. We struggle financially to keep the organization running. So the fee for the Peer Supporter Training helps with our work. However, we do not want the fee to be an obstacle to our peer supporter training. So if the fee is a challenge, please connect with us to explore options for a reduced fee.
We do charge a nominal, refundable ‘commitment fee’ of $50. This is to prevent people from signing up for the training and not showing up or following through. Unfortunately this has happened. We we have found that when participants pay, even a token amount, there is a ‘psychological commitment’ to course, so that they are more likely to take the training seriously and follow through with it. This commitment fee is refundable if the participant completes the course.
Interested? Connect
