KITCHENER – Bereaved Families of Ontario – Midwestern Region (BFO-MR) is currently recruiting volunteer facilitators for its peer grief support programs in an effort to meet demand for service and increase the organization’s capacity to reach more individuals.
“As a peer support organization, the work we do would not be possible without the support of our volunteers,” said Jaime Bickerton, BFO-MR Executive Director.
“We are at a critical point where we need to build our roster of group facilitators to ensure uninterrupted access to grief support.”
With the exception of its programming for children and teens, all BFO-MR groups are led by individuals who have also experienced the death of someone in their life.
Being able to talk about the person/people who died and discuss coping strategies among a group with shared experiences is at the foundation of peer support.
“We have been very fortunate to have a core group of volunteers who have provided support for many years, but it’s not sustainable to continue relying on the same people year after year,” said Bickerton.
“Given the heavy emotional aspect of this particular role, it has been challenging to recruit enough volunteers to maintain the status quo let alone foster the growth needed to enable greater access to grief support.
“Our ultimate goal is to offer in-person and virtual options for all programs.”
BFO-MR is currently recruiting peer support volunteers for:
– program for parents grieving the death of an infant;
– program for parents grieving the death of a child;
– living with loss (mixed-loss group for adults); and
– living with loss by substance use (group for adults grieving a death by drugs or alcohol).
A virtual information session will be held Jan. 31 from 6:30-7:30pm for anyone interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer facilitator.
Registration is required and can be found here: bfomidwest.org.
Facilitator training is a requirement for volunteers who apply to lead BFO-MR’s peer support grief groups.
Training is provided over two to three days and combines both in-person and virtual aspects.
Day one and two are required for all facilitators, with day three being a requirement for any volunteer who wishes to facilitate a closed program (i.e. program for parents grieving the death of an infant or child).
Day three covers the closed format and story sharing aspects of the group.
Spring training dates are:
– March 20 (virtual) from 6:30 to 8:30pm;
– March 23 (in-person) from 9am to 4pm; and
– March 24 (in-person) from 9am to 1pm.
