1. CMHA Calgary Community Helpers [“Fortifying Natural Supports”]
– Calgary Peer Consultation

2. Supporting Existing Communities
What is Community Helpers?
Supporting Existing Communities
Peer Helping Model
“in every community there are people to whom others naturally turn when they need help.” – [Dave Redekopp]
Core Objectives:
- strengthen helping abilities of natural helpers
- emphasise and model self-care bridge formal and informal supports
- create common mental health language and knowledge
- prevent suicide

3. History
Community Helpers initiative began in Alberta with The Alberta Mental Health Board A CALL TO ACTION (2006).
Adapted by Life-Role Development Group with the support of Alberta Health Services. (2008)
CMHA beings delivery of the program in Calgary (2013)
Pilot with first specifically targeted multicultural community (2015)
2000 Natural Helpers program in the USA
2006 Call to Action
2013 CMHA Project Launch (Youth)
2015 Multicultural pilot
2016 Joint Delivery with CCECA

4. Who do you trust in your community?
Who is a Community Helper?
Who do you trust in your community?
Someone who is:
Trustworthy Good Listener Comforting
Dependable Respectful Safe
Honest Willing to Help Compassionate
Non-Judgemental Inner-Strength
Healthy Boundaries

5. How do you Become a Community Helper?
Connect with the community
Nominate the natural listeners
Training in the helping skill
Communities of Practice for the CHs

6. What we’re not trying to do
Clinicalise the experience of poverty or cultural issues
Teach community members to asses/diagnose
Replace ‘formal supports’
Impose a ‘western/anglophone’ lens to the mental health or addiction experience
Put further burden on hospitals and emergency rooms

7. Our impact in Multicultural Calgary
Community members have a safe space or person they can confide in to share their experience of mental distress
Using the community’s language to share their challenges
Decreasing isolation
Building ‘bridges of trust’ to the mental health system

8. Our Funders:
The Blitz Estate