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Here4Peers

Here4Peers

Here4Peers is a youth-driven, evidence-based, mental health awareness and skill building program which involves training older grade 10-12 “peers” from high schools to facilitate an interactive mental health workshop to grade 7 classrooms in catchment elementary schools.

The program grew out of a unique partnership between the Canadian Mental Health Association Vancouver-Fraser Branch, Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Police Foundation, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Vancouver School Board with a common goal of developing a youth-oriented and youth-delivered mental health awareness program.

How does it work?

The Here4Peers Program recruits and trains teams of high school students (grades 10-12) to become Here4Peers Youth Facilitators. These Youth Facilitators then facilitate the Here4Peers Youth Mental Health Awareness workshop in teams of three for grade 7 students who are experiencing both: a transition into adolescence, and a transition to high school. The workshops are supervised, and designed to be interactive, utilizing challenges, games, discussion groups and media to engage participants.

The Here4Peers Workshop goals are to:

Since 2017, over 541 Youth Facilitators have been trained to deliver the workshop.

Over 303 Here4Peers Workshops have been delivered during this time.

In 2021-22, we reached 992 students across the Greater Vancouver Region.

If you are interested in receiving the workshops in your school, please contact the Here4Peers program at here4peers.vf@cmhavf.ca

We acknowledge the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia, SurreyCares and Diamond Foundation

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