Peer support is a group of people who share something in common coming together to support one another through the ups and downs they may be facing in their life. We all come from different backgrounds, different ages and walks of life. We walked our own journeys and sometimes that left us feeling down, alone, misunderstood and defeated. But then unfortunate circumstances bring together a group of people to heal, learn, grow and remember what happened in our past doesn’t define us. We’ll turn pain into power because we’re strong and resilient to come this far.
Peer support can feel like a friendship or even family, a family you didn’t know you had or even needed. Peer support doesn’t mean a group of friends supporting one another but a group of individuals who come together and may even find friendship along the way. Who says you can’t find a little sunshine after the rain?
Peer support means a safe place where you aren’t forced to do anything you don’t want to do. You don’t have to feel alone, you don’t have to be alone, you don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be other than yourself. Just coming as you are, socialize and have fun with others in the group. Peer support means having support in your daily life. You can have a very important meeting ahead of you that makes you feel anxious, and you’ll have the supports you need in order to be prepared, confident and ready to accomplish anything life throws your way.
You don’t have to talk about your problems - if you had a bad day and need to vent, you can vent away without judgement. Had a rough week? Peer support is there to turn your frown upside down, helping put things into perspective to be able to tackle life with more strength than you had before. Peer support is something I never knew I needed, something that has changed my life for the better after all I’ve been through. I still struggle to overcome certain obstacles, but I have peer support to make me feel accepted, feel good that I have a group I can turn to, and be myself.
We walk down different paths in life but we meet people along this journey; that doesn’t happen by chance, but happens for a reason. We may not know the reason, but the one thing I do know is that I’m safe, I’m strong, I’m better than I was yesterday thanks to having peer support.
Written by “Anonymous,” a peer participant in our Survivor-Led Peer Programming.
Note: Restorations recognizes the importance of financially compensating survivors for their time, energy, and expertise and, as such, we financially compensate all survivors who contribute written pieces for the blog. We strongly believe in the necessity of financial compensation for this work, and we urge other organizations who request survivors to speak, write, or consult for their organization to do likewise for the following reasons:
to demonstrate a commitment to honour and respect survivors’ time, energy, and expertise;
to demonstrate an appreciation for the emotional, mental, and physical energy necessary to share their experiences with us in order to benefit others;
and to demonstrate a commitment to developing the economic independence of survivors.
