CLOSED: We’re looking for freelance facilitators for our Peer Networking Support Space
(THIS IS NOW CLOSED TO APPLICATIONS, WE MAY OPEN THIS OPPORTUNITY AGAIN LATER IN THE YEAR)
Rate of pay: £200-£350 per month, dependant on experience.
Our Peer Networking Support Space has been running since July 2023 and we are now looking for facilitators to deliver it for us online, every second Tuesday in the month.
The group is specifically for Black and People of Colour working or volunteering in user-led peer groups or campaigning capacities at the intersection of racial justice and mental health, distress and/or trauma based in the UK. We are looking for facilitators who share this lived experience. If you’re interested but unsure if you meet the criteria, please get in touch.
Running roughly along intentional peer support principles, we hold space to build community, to enable compassionate connections, networking opportunities and to spread awareness of abolitionist approaches to mental health, distress and/or trauma. Sharing with others is a way to build resource and collective power to make change. It is together as a network that we hold far greater information and wisdom.
Though topics of conversation are led by the group, we expect some of the below areas to come up:
- Help and direction to resources to support how groups or campaigns are run e.g. setting up policies and procedures
- Pros and cons of being an un-constituted group
- Sharing experiences and helpful coping tips when doing racial justice work in the hostile environment
- The pros and cons of having lived experience of the issues we work with
- Sharing ideas to overcome the challenges of sustainability and the centring of care within the work
- How we practice abolitionist mental health care in our communities
- How the hardship of the work can be offset with joy
We do not expect facilitators to be experts on these topics, but some awareness of abolitionist approaches to mental health is important (including but not limited to: understanding that mainstream options can be carceral; alternatives to standard psychiatric and psychological care e.g. crisis houses, Hearing Voices Groups and Intentional Peer Support; the need for anti-racist therapy, mutual aid and non-individualist approaches to care).
Other expectations for facilitators:
- To be able to work well with a co-facilitator, two people share facilitation in each group.
- To be available Tuesday afternoons for at least 6 months.
- Groups are 120 minutes long. You will need to be available prior for a short check-in, and afterwards for up to a 30 minute debrief.
- Availability for an hours prep the day before the group (to prepare for implementation of feedback and to go through signups to the group)
- Experience of using Zoom.
- Ability to manage an online group up to 20 people. Breakout rooms are used if it’s a large group and it seems supportive.
- Ability to act decisively and remove people, if our online events procedure or community intentions are broken.
- Ability to receive and implement feedback from attendees, from your co-facilitator and from Synergi staff.
- You must have the ability to share some of your experiences in the group, whilst also being able to keep yourself feeling safe enough emotionally. You must also be skilled in balancing when to share or not, prioritising the needs of the members within the group.
- We will require facilitators to be DBS checked which we will arrange (Having a criminal record will not necessarily exclude you from working with us).
If you would like to be considered for a position, please send an email outlining how you meet the brief (please limit this to 2 sides of A4 at most) to synergi.info@nsun.org.uk
If you have any questions, please do get in touch. Applications will be open until we receive enough interest, so please be aware it may be some time before you hear back from us.