Guidelines
Ground rules for peer support groups
Effective Facilitator Guidelines
- Beginning and ending on time
- Keeping focus on set agenda with flexibility for diversions as needed
- Setting ground rules
- Recognizing diversity of backgrounds, experiences and communication styles
- Bringing all voices, both vocal and quiet, into the conversation
- Listening and being in tune with yourself – your energy and connection to the participants and the content
- Listening to individual participants – what you hear and observe
- Listening to the group – what is explicit and what is subtle
- Creating safe space for participants to express themselves candidly
- Promoting notion of pushing the envelope and going beyond comfort zone
- Focusing on illuminating similar and/or diverse viewpoints
- Maintaining sense of the bigger picture
- Discussing relevant next steps & next agenda
Peer support framework guidelines
- Before determining the model best suited for your needs, determine who will be invited to participate.
- Given the nature of victim advocacy work and the requirements of NCA Standards for Accreditation, identify all those providing victim advocacy services in your jurisdiction to CAC clients
- Include identified victim service providers from diverse agencies to ensure coordinated, comprehensive services including, but not limited to, those employed by:
- CACs
- Community-based agencies(e.g.,domestic violence, sexual assault/rape crisis)
- Police departments
- Hospitals
- Prosecutor’s offices
Gather input from invited participants to inform the type of model(s) that best suits the group, such as:
- Formal or informal
- Local and/or statewide
- Frequency and duration
- consider feasibility relative to in-person vs. virtual, including required travel and costs
- in-person may allow for longer meeting time
- in-person and/or virtual
- determine if one or the other or both
- if in-person, determine location or rotation of locations to ensure access and privacy; consider scheduling to coincide with FI peer review for cost-effectiveness
- if virtual, determine the platform that will ensure access and maximize participation
Thoughtful collaborative planning and agreed upon protocols and ground rules will help achieve positive outcomes. Consider the following:
- Discuss and establish commitment to overall purpose and goals
- Build trusting relationships within the group
- Develop a process for identifying, recruiting, and training peer facilitators
- Develop agreements that include:
- a statement of purpose and intended outcomes for participants
- expectations, rights, and responsibilities of participants, including such issues as attendance and how participants join and end their involvement in the group
- how group is facilitated
- confidentiality – within the group and with individual participants’ supervisors
- how feedback is solicited from participants to assess satisfaction with the process and achievement of stated goals
- how compliance with protocols is supported
- Create, share and secure agreement with ground rules