The Peer Skills Workshop is a two day interactive learning experience designed to acknowledge and build on the natural listening, helping and problem solving skills of young people. The workshop helps young people develop their relationship skills and increases their confidence in safely assisting a friend or peer who is experiencing a problem.
The Peer Skills Program refers to all aspects involved with the implementation of the Peer Skills Workshops. For more information download the
The Peer Skills Program uses a problem prevention, youth development and community development framework to support its peer work with young people. The Peer Skills Workshop and Peer Skills Facilitator Training Program use an experiential style of learning, underpinned by the principles of empowerment and child centred practice.
The Peer Skills Workshop can be used as a stand alone training to assist young peoples’ skills development. It is also designed to be used by schools and agencies as a foundation training for peer based programs and structures that will assist in the development of supportive networks in schools and communities.
The Peer Skills workshop was developed by Boystown’s national telephone counselling service, Kids Help Line, in 1994 in response to young callers concerns about how to best help their friends. From 1994 until September 2005 over 16,000 young people throughout Australian states and territories participated in the Peer Skills Workshop. Since February 2006 the Peer Skills program in Queensland has been under the carriage of UnitingCare Community Queensland and Lifeline in the ACT.
The Peer Skills program was developed as a response to the recognition through calls to Kids Help Line and national and international research that confirmed that young people often turn to their fellow students for support in difficult times, before they turn to parents, counsellors or school staff. The workshop is designed to acknowledge and build on existing skills with ideas, knowledge and strategies for assisting their peers with some of the issues that trouble them on a daily basis as well as in times of crisis.
For more information see why Young People Most Often Turn to Friends for Help First (link to document).
Peer Skills exists to provide skills, knowledge and strategies to assist young people to develop self understanding and effective supportive relationships. Underlying this mission is a belief in the worth of young people and their capacity for effective engagement with each other, family and community.
The Peer Skills Program is underpinned by a philosophy of child-centred practice and empowerment. Peer Skills aims to be child-centred and empowering in both content and process.
Since 1999, Peer Skills Workshops have largely been facilitated by workers who have been trained to undertake the delivery of the Peer Skills Workshop as a part of their work with young people. In Queensland, a Partnership Agreement is negotiated between UnitingCare Community Peer Skills program and the school or agency representative prior to a worker being accepted as a participant in Peer Skills.
Many partnership relationships have been negotiated with host schools and community agencies to facilitate effective delivery of the two-day Peer Skills Workshop. For many schools and agencies the Peer Skills Workshop forms part of a structured peer program to prevent problems, develop skills and supportive networks.
Alongside the Partnership model, the Peer Skills program also recommends some preferred Peer Skills facilitators who are able to deliver the Peer Skills Workshop on a fee-for-service basis. Contact the francesca [dot] lejeune [at] uccommunity [dot] org [dot] au (Peer Skills Manager Queensland) for information about preferred facilitators.
The Peer Skills Facilitator Training is designed for relevant workers who wish to implement the Peer Skills Workshop and peer work structures with young people as a part of their role within schools or agencies. For more information, check out the Facilitator Training section.
Francesca Lejeune
Peer Skills Manager Queensland
Phone 3250 1894
francesca [dot] lejeune [at] uccommunity [dot] org [dot] au
Western Australia
Head of Educational Services
John Clapton
YouthCARE
Phone 08 9376 5000
johnc [at] youthcare [dot] org [dot] au
ACT
Chris McGowan
Manager, Corporate Training and LYNX
Lifeline Canberra
Ph: 02 6204 6404
Mob: 0488 998 872
chris [dot] mcgowan [at] act [dot] lifeline [dot] org [dot] au
