6-hour course for CPSs and pre-CPSs

This training is designed to prepare peer support workers to support communities impacted by suicide—whether offering one-on-one peer support to individuals, walking alongside family members, accompanying survivors of loss, or responding to whole communities grappling with competing needs and priorities. We emphasize the nuances within each person’s story and the importance of meeting people where they are, with approaches rooted in lived experience rather than clinical frameworks.

Participants will engage in reflective work to recognize their own biases, emotional responses, and assumptions around suicide, building awareness of how these can shape the support they provide. Through storytelling and real-world practice scenarios, students will learn to apply trauma-informed peer support tools that prioritize autonomy, relational trust, and collective healing.

Key learning areas include:

• PEACE Tool for building trust and addressing root causes of suicidality (not risk assessment)
• BARK Tool for supporting individuals living with chronic or intrusive suicidal thoughts.
• Brave Communication Tool for guiding family members and friends in non-coercive conversations.
• FOG/SUN tool for supporting survivors of domestic violence where threats of suicide are being used as an abuse tactic.
• Approaches for providing grief and trauma peer support to those who have lost someone to suicide.
• Facilitation of peer support groups where suicide is either the central focus or arises unexpectedly.
• Tailored approaches for specific populations, including youth, LGBTQ+ individuals, and veterans.
• Sustainability and boundary setting in this deeply human and heavy heart work.

The training highlights the ethical foundations of peer support, how to distinguish between expressions of deep pain and moments when action may be imminent, and how to make referrals that honor autonomy and minimize restriction. By the end, participants will not only gain new trauma-healing skills but also the confidence to practice them in real-world settings, with the grounding that comes from lived experience storytelling.

For more information or an application on Living with Suicide classes, please email cbassett@kivacenters.org.