How I Act

30 minutes

Activities addressing emotional regulation and building healthy coping skills for uncomfortable feelings.

How Can I Help?

1 Hour

Exploration into empathy building, appropriate responses and effective help seeking behavior.

Who Am I?

1 Hour

Students explore their strengths, talents and what they love about themselves while building self-esteem.

What Now?

1 Hour

Discussion and activities around decision making, appropriate choices and taking responsibility.

How I Act Online

1 Hour

Participants explore social media, online behaviours, potential benefits and long term consequences.

How Do I Treat You?

2 Hour

Bullying Prevention focusing on the bullying triangle, reasons, consequences of bullying and what to do and how to report in a bullying situation.

How Do I Cope?”

1 Hour

Focus on the science behind stress and building effective coping mechanisms.

Self-Harm

1 Hour

Conversation around self-harm behavior, risk factors, positive coping skills and help seeking behavior.

Mental Health Literacy

1 Hour

Exploration of mental health vs. mental illness and building personal resilience.

Suicide Awareness

2 hours minimum
Usually two 80 min periods

Open discussion of protective and risk factors or suicidal behaviour, recognizing warning signs and  seeking help.

Depression Awareness

80 min

Focus on breaking down the stigma around depression, learning about symptoms and what help is available.

Stress of Tests

1 hour

Addressing effective study habits, causes of test anxiety and building de-stressing skills.

The Community Helpers Program is an Alberta Health Services Program designed for youth and adults ages 12-30, and adults who work with youth. The program is designed for helpers, those in the community who others come to for help. The program is designed to help with mental health intervention by training those helpers to hone in on their helping skills while learning how to take care of themselves. The program does not teach helpers to be their friend’s therapists, rather, it prepares them to support their peers in a healthy, safe, informed way and gives them the tools to know how and when to help their peer find professional mental health resources and intervention. The program is also designed to improve the intervention and treatment for those at risk of suicide and is part of Alberta’s “Building strength, inspiring hope: a provincial action plan for youth suicide prevention 2019 – 2024.”

 The full Community Helpers Training includes 9 Core Modules that mix interaction, discussion and activities to help reach a deep understanding of topics. The topics range from ethics to helping to boundaries to understanding suicide. If the full training is completed, participants get an official Alberta Health Services certificate of completion which can go on resumes and professional development records.

The full training takes two days to compete. However the training can be done in small increments over the course of different days, or weeks. The program can be suited to the needs of those taking it.

There is no fee for the Community Helpers Training. All areas outside of Red Deer are subject to a travel fee of $0.52/km