DONATIONS AT WORK HIGHLIGHTS 2025/26
Peer Support Program
Despite an increase in youth seeking help for mental health struggles, the feeling of isolation remains a real challenge for many. Navigating mental health diagnoses and treatment can be a very lonely road to walk, leaving some families feeling like no one truly understands what they’re going through.
Thanks to generous support from people like you, families are finding much needed empathy and solace. Through the Peer Support program, specially trained Peer Support Workers (PSWs) with their own personal lived experience offer a compassionate, non-judgemental listening ear and act as a beacon of hope that things can get better.
The program began in the Emergency Department at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and evolved to be a vital part of the journey of many families at The Summit: Centre for Youth Resilience, which opened in 2023. Now, access to the Peer Support program is being extended to young people and families across the broader continuum of youth mental health care within Recovery Alberta’s Child and Adolescent Addiction Mental Health and Psychiatry Program. This means patients receiving care at community clinics and through Acute@Home — a program that provides youth and sometimes parents therapy in a home or community setting — can now attend Peer Support sessions at The Summit in complement to their care.
In the 2025/26 year, Peer Support Workers led 322 in-person sessions with 134 unique children, teens or families. This is up from 263 sessions in the year prior.
The increased uptake is very encouraging, says Morgan Pelley, Patient and Family Centred Care Program Facilitator at The Summit.
“We’ve recently made a conscious effort to include Peer Support in more engagement and outreach activities with the intent of increasing knowledge of and familiarity with the program, which will likely lead to more appointments,” she says. “We’re so glad that more and more young people are leaning into this service and experiencing the benefits of having a Peer Support Worker as an active part of their care journey.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Last year, there was a 22 percent increase in interactions between Peer Support Workers and young people on a mental health journey.
learn more about the summitCoal’s story
At 13 years old, Coal found himself in the Emergency Department of the Alberta Children’s Hospital during a mental health crisis.
“I was reading a book about German Shepherds and a guy walked up to me and said, ‘I used to have a German Shepherd,’” says Coal. “He probably spent an hour and a half talking about dogs with me.”
There was nothing intimidating about it — it wasn’t a doctor or a nurse or a therapist, there were no medical questions or tests; it was simply an empathetic person to sit with him and keep him company while he was having a really difficult time.
Over the years, that friendly stranger — a Peer Support Worker named Jason — became a familiar face. Coal had a number of Emergency Department visits, and each time, Jason was there.
Later, Coal’s therapist officially referred him to the Peer Support Program at The Summit, where he was able to meet with Jason more regularly as part of his ongoing mental health care.
Sometimes they’d play video games or work on an art project, sometimes they’d go for a walk. And sometimes they’d just sit and talk.
“We had some really honest conversations,” says Coal. “It’s easier to talk to a Peer Support Worker than almost anyone else. He didn’t try to solve my problems, he just sat with me through everything. There were times when I was so sad and not having to deal with that alone — to have someone who’s gone through something of their own – was really comforting.”
Now almost 18, Coal is getting ready for his first year of college, working toward his goal of becoming a social worker — inspired largely by his own mental health journey and the support he received. His dream is to one day work at The Summit and help others navigate their own mental health challenges.
“Jason has watched me go from being this scared kid to getting my first service dog, graduating high school, getting into college and getting a scholarship — he’s been there through it all,” says Coal.
He is also incredibly grateful for the generous community that has invested in the Peer Support program to help young people like him.
“It means a lot and I’d thank all those people who helped make the program possible. My mental health journey would have been quite different without peer support. I’m literally here today and going into social work because of it.”
— Coal
MAKING AN IMPACT
According to survey results collected by the University of Calgary, 86 percent of respondents feel better after meeting with a Peer Support Worker and 83 percent agree they know where to find support if they struggle in the future after seeing a Peer Support Worker.
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