Intercultural Program Peer Support Facilitator

Become a peer support facilitator with the Intercultural Program at the Center for Grieving Children!

We are looking for inquisitive, creative, and empathic volunteers to join our Intercultural Peer Support Program at the Center for Grieving Children for the next academic year (2024-2025).

For more than 20 years, the Intercultural Peer Support Program has collaborated with local schools to serve children who have resettled in Portland from countries that experienced war, conflict, and natural disaster. With trained community volunteers using a peer support model, children and teens have the safety to express their feelings relative to the losses and changes in their lives. The program addresses the issue of collective loss (which potentially includes loss of homeland, of family, of language, of status, of cultural norms) through creative expression, theater games, artistic activities, music, and group discussions. Throughout the program, the students develop a sense of togetherness as well as have the chance to explore their own identity as they navigate different worlds simultaneously. Intercultural peer support promotes healing from grief by increasing children’s coping skills, building positive peer relationships, improving self-confidence, and supporting the acquisition of English language skills. The result is greater emotional balance, healing, and confidence, which can enhance school performance and positively impact youth development. Today the program serves over sixty children each year from an array of countries including Honduras, Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Congo, Vietnam, Sudan, Iraq, Cambodia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Haiti.

Join us in the unique opportunity to help create a safe, healing, and playful community. You will be challenged, engaged, supported, and undoubtedly fulfilled by this opportunity and the many meaningful connections that develop. Volunteer facilitating consists of a weekly four-hour commitment that includes two hours of programming with students and two hours for planning, processing, and discussion with fellow facilitators and clinical staff.

If interested, please email Grief Services & Volunteer Coordinator Kristin Lash at volunteer@cgcmaine.org. All interested volunteers are asked to attend a one-hour information session about the Center, our peer support model, and required 30hr. Facilitator Training. Volunteer Information Session (VIS) dates as well as upcoming trainings are listed at cgcmaine.org/getinvolved.

During the 30hr. Facilitator Training, volunteers will learn about the stages of grief, how to respond to children’s loss, empathic and reflective listening skills, and how to facilitate group dynamics. Trainees will also have the opportunity to experience the peer support model and process. The hybrid Facilitator Training is held a few times throughout the year; Intercultural Facilitators receive additional training during the fall.

Reserve your spot in an upcoming Volunteer Information Session and begin the enrollment process for our next training! Email Grief Services & Volunteer Coordinator Kristin Lash at volunteer@cgcmaine.org.