Empowering Each Other: Peer Support Strategies for Peer Support for Social Service Staff

Social service professionals face increasing demands that can affect workplace well-being, resilience, and job satisfaction. This interactive workshop provides participants with practical strategies to strengthen peer support, enhance team collaboration, and foster a resilient workplace culture. Through guided reflection, facilitated discussion, and skill-building activities, participants will explore the connection between purpose, professional well-being, and effective service delivery.
Participants will learn evidence-informed peer support practices that promote psychological safety, trust, and mutual accountability among colleagues. The workshop also examines the role of healthy professional boundaries, self-care, and collective care in sustaining effective human services work. Attendees will leave with actionable tools they can immediately apply to strengthen workplace relationships, increase team resilience, and improve outcomes for the individuals and communities they serve.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
1. Explain the relationship between personal and professional purpose, employee engagement, resilience, and effective service delivery.
2. Distinguish between informal and intentional peer support strategies and identify appropriate applications of each in a social services work environment.
3. Demonstrate structured peer support practices, including team check-ins, reflective discussions, and collaborative problem-solving techniques.
4. Apply strategies for establishing healthy professional boundaries while maintaining supportive and productive workplace relationships.
5. Recognize the role of purpose-driven work in fostering professional satisfaction, engagement, and positive client outcomes.
6. Identify self-care and collective care practices that contribute to a sustainable, supportive, and effective workforce.