BIPOC 1:1 Peer Support Volunteer

Location: Remote
Format: Phone-based peer support
Commitment: 8 - 14 sessions, approximately 30 minutes each, held weekly or bi-weekly

Centre for Grief & Healing (BFO-H/P)

The Centre for Grief & Healing is currently seeking Black, Indigenous, and racialized/People of Colour volunteers living in Halton Region to provide peer support to BIPOC community members navigating grief and bereavement.

Our peer-support model is rooted in the connection, empathy, and mutual understanding that can emerge through shared lived experience.

Grief can be shaped by culture, race, faith, migration, experiences of racism or exclusion, and cultural beliefs and practices surrounding death and mourning. For BIPOC community members, having the opportunity to receive support from a peer who brings relevant lived experience can help create a culturally responsive, safer space to speak openly about grief and the ways identity may intersect with loss.

For this reason, we are seeking BIPOC volunteers to support our over the phone 1:1 Peer Support program for folks living in the Halton region.

We also recognize that shared identity does not mean shared experience. BIPOC communities are diverse, and volunteers are not expected to represent or speak for a particular culture or community. Instead, we ask volunteers to bring their lived experience alongside curiosity, respect, openness, and cultural humility.

1:1 Peer Support

As a 1:1 Peer Support Volunteer, you will be matched with a community member seeking individual grief support.

Volunteers provide 30-minute phone-based peer support sessions, following an established 1:1 Peer Support Guide to help structure conversations while allowing space for each person’s individual grief experience.

Your role is to journey alongside the person rather than provide advice, counselling, or solutions. Through compassionate listening, thoughtful sharing of lived experience, and emotional presence, you will help create a safer space where the individual can speak openly about their grief and feel heard, understood, and less alone.

Our guide provides structure and support for each conversation while recognizing that grief is individual and participants should be met where they are.

We’re looking for volunteers who:

• Live in Halton Region
• Self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized/a Person of Colour
• Have personal lived experience with grief and bereavement
• Be comfortable using their lived experience thoughtfully to support others
• Demonstrate empathy, compassion, non-judgment, and respect for different identities, cultures, beliefs, and experiences
• Be open to learning and practicing cultural humility
• Be able to maintain appropriate peer-support boundaries and confidentiality
• Be willing to complete required training and work collaboratively with Centre staff and other volunteers

You Don't Need to Be a Professional

You do not need to be a therapist, counsellor, or mental health professional.

We are looking for people with lived experience, empathy, self-awareness, compassion, and a genuine desire to support others.

The Centre for Grief & Healing provides training, program resources, facilitator materials, and ongoing staff support to help volunteers feel prepared and supported in their role.

All applicants are required to:

• Be 18 years of age or older.
• Have lived experience with loss and feel emotionally ready to support others through peer support.
• Have access to a computer or laptop, reliable internet, and a private, quiet space suitable for facilitating virtual groups.
• Provide a current Vulnerable Sector Check before facilitating groups or providing one-to-one peer support.