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 has evolved 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 and Executive Director, 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 and Durham OHT’s Patient Family and Care Partner Advisory Committee. Percy has been facilitating the GraceWins Peer Supporter Training since March 2022.

Online Peer Supporter Training

Date: Thursdays: Starts Thursday, May 7, 2026: 14 weeks

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Where: Online: Google Meet

Fee: $300 or ‘pay what you can’

If the fee is a challenge, please connect with us to explore options for a lesser fee. While we are a charitable, not-for-profit social enterprise that is financially challenged, so the fee helps with our work, we do not want the fee to be an obstacle to the peer supporter training.

However, we do charge a nominal, refundable ‘commitment fee’ of $50 as we have found that when participants pay, even a token amount, there is a ‘psychological commitment’ so that they are more likely to take the training seriously and follow through with it. This commitment fee is refundable if the participant demonstrates a commitment to the course.

Interested? Connect