Activities

You can print out this page, or draw your own version of each activity on a piece of paper or a flipchart. To make each image bigger, right click and press 'open image in new tab'. We'd recommend doing the activities with your members, so everyone can feed into shaping the group.

The activities are:

Group membership - to help you work out who your group is for
Mapping your venue - to help you work out if your venue is practical
Group agreement - to help you come up with a set of ground rules
My portrait - to help groups get to know each other better
How we connect - to help you think about which behaviours are appropriate in peer support
Barriers to being yourself - to identify the barriers for people going to your group
How we act - to explore how our behaviours change in different situations
Facilitation skills - to help you decide how to run your peer support
Common interests - to help you find new activities to do in your peer support
Mapping partners and resources - to help you think about the people or organisations that could be helpful to your group

Group membership activity

This activity helps you think about who your group is for, and what you'd like members to have in common.

Print or draw the circles and boxes.
Think about things you want your group members to have in common. Add these characteristics to the ‘members’ circle.
Think about characteristics that you can’t include in your group. Add these to the ‘not appropriate for’ circle.
Discuss other characteristics that aren’t essential to join your group but are important to think about. Put these in the ‘important to consider’ box. Examples include age, gender, people in crisis, carers, disability, LGBTQ+ and language. You can use this space to explore any barriers that people may have to taking part.
The activity can be printed and written on, or drawn out to a size that works for you. You could use sticky notes so characteristics can be easily moved as you discuss them.

There's a space at the top of the page to write the name of your group. Underneath, are 2 circles - one labelled 'members', and the other labelled 'not appropriate for'. In the members circle, there are 2 example characteristics - all will have experience of depression, and all members will be male. In the not appropriate circle, the example given is 'women', because the group is a space for men to talk. Underneath the 2 circles is a long rectangle, labelled 'important to consider'. Examples given are LGBTQ+, disability, age and culture.

Mapping your venue activity

The aim of this activity is to help you work out if your venue is practically suitable for your group. If you don’t want to draw your venue, you could carry out this exercise by writing a list of relevant features. Ideally, you'll need to be at your venue to complete this exercise.

Arrive at your venue and go in as if you were visiting for the first time. As you go around, check whether the venue has the features in the boxes on this activity.
Consider whether the venue has access to a phone, and whether you need to do a risk assessment of the venue. Is the venue staffed by people who could help in an emergency? Are there any other considerations you need to make for your group?
Check who else might be using the venue at the same time as your group. This might be particularly important for women-only groups and others needing privacy.
Draw a map of the venue.
Mark the following on your map - where the group meets in the building, and spaces in the building that are being used when your group meets. Include details of who uses them and what for if possible. Add in any available quiet spaces, bathrooms, facilities like kitchens, tea and coffee making facilities, fire exits, fire extinguishers and first aid kits.

At the top, there's a box for you to draw a map of the venue, with an example map drawn out. There's space for you to write the address, name of the venue, phone number, buses to venue, trains to venue, and parking at the venue. There are 15 boxes underneath. 9 of them say parking, accessible toilets, natural light, ramps, tea/coffee, quiet space, fire exits, fire extinguishers and first aid kits. The other 6 boxes say other, and leave space for you to write your own features in.

Group agreement activity

This activity will help you to come up with a group agreement, to make sure your peer support group is a safe and fair space for everyone. Follow these steps to start creating your group agreement:

For people to feel comfortable and safe, it's helpful to develop and agreement together. Ask group members what they need to do to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable.
Ask the following questions to prompt ideas about how people can feel like they have choice and control. How can we make sure people feel comfortable dipping in and out of the group? Is what you discuss confidential, and what does that mean? What could we use to allow people to feedback without having to speak to the whole group?
Ask people to make suggestions, write or draw them down, or ask them to write their suggestions on a sticky note. This way, people can contribute in the way they prefer. For example, if someone says they need to listen to each other, you could draw an ear.
Once you've collected the suggestions, read the list back to the group and agree which should become rules.
Put the agreement on the wall and tell the group that these are now the rules of the safe space.
Ask the group - what happens if the rules are broken? Agree on these as a group.
Display the agreement at every meeting as a reminder and to promote them.
Review and refresh the rules regularly to make sure they stay up to date.
Go through the rules with new members so they're familiar with them, can contribute to them, or can raise any concerns.

Examples of things you could include in your agreement are:

Please don't talk about me outside of the group
If something isn't working, say so
Be non-judgmental and respectful of each other

My portrait activity

The aim of this activity is to help groups get to know each other better and explore what group members would like to share.

The best format for this activity will be between different for different people. Some may like to discuss it as a group. Others might want to do it on their own.

Make sure you discuss whether you'll keep the completed profiles or get rid of them.

Use the template or draw your own. In a group or in pairs, discuss each others' strengths, skills and interests.
If people are comfortable doing so, you could share these with one another.
Talk about gestures that members would appreciate. This could be something you could do to show you care.
Talk about how members would like to be treated in certain situations.

How we connect activity

The aim of this activity is to think about the behaviours your group feels are appropriate in peer support.

Discuss each behaviour on the cards. In which circumstances are these appropriate?
Label each behaviour on whether it's appropriate in peer support, in friendships outside of peer support, or never.
Draw your own interlinking circles, or use the template, to place the behaviours into the 3 different categories.
By the end of the activity, you should be clearer about which behaviours and actions you feel are appropriate in a peer support setting.

18 boxes, each with a different behaviour or action in. There are also 2 boxes which say other, so you can write your own actions in. The actions in the boxes are sharing jokes, phone, text, talking about another member or group, email, inviting people round to your house for a meal, sharing personal contact details, connecting on social media, lending money, telling funny stories, hug, swearing, making tea or coffee for each other, getting to know each other's hobbies, phoning or texting late at night, talking about suicidal thoughts, advising on what medication to take, sharing our experience of accessing services.

3 circles, labelled peer support, friendship, and never. The peer support and friendship circles are overlapping, while the never circle is on its own.

A list of barriers people might face attending a peer support group, written in boxes. Barriers listed are too many people in the room, assumptions about gender/sexuality, first time attending, and physical barriers. On the right there's a list of ideas for overcoming these barriers, including having a quiet/separate space, discussions about language, buddying, and making the venue accessible.

Barriers to being yourself activity

The aim of this activity is to identify what barriers there might be for people attending your group, and how you could overcome them.

Write barriers on sticky notes. These could be personal barriers or barriers that you think other people experience.
Stick the barriers on a wall or a table, in a row.
Work as a group to think of ways to overcome these barriers. Write these ideas on sticky notes and stick them next to the barrier.

How we act activity

The aim of this activity is to explore how our behaviours and interactions change in different situations and how group members would like to be able to behave at your peer support group.

Use boxes like the ones here to describe how you behave in the different situations. You can do this by drawing or writing, or you could script a conversation.
You may want to think about how you act when you are around different groups of people. When are you more or less comfortable? Do you talk to different people in different ways?
The final box is to explore how you would like to be able to act when you are taking part in peer support.
Use this to discuss how people can feel comfortable in the group and feel free to be
themselves.

4 boxes, labelled relaxing with friends, visiting the GP, on public transport, and how I would like to be at peer support.

3 circles inside each other. The smallest in the middle is labelled important, the circle around that is labelled less important, and the final, biggest circle is labelled not important. There's a heading at the top of the diagram labelled what makes good facilitation?

Facilitation skills activity

This activity is to help you decide how your peer support is facilitated when you meet. The aim is to come up with a list of qualities your group feels are important, and then think about who in the group has these skills.

Using the diagram, describe the qualities that your group need, or would like, from facilitation. These should be placed in the ‘not important’, ‘less important’, and ’important’ circles. You could write the qualities directly onto the diagram or write them on sticky notes and stick them on.

7 boxes which are labelled with the days of the week. In each box, there's a section to write down what you enjoy in an activity, and what you don't enjoy. There's an eighth box labelled 'What's missing', where you can write down additional activity ideas.

Common interests activity

The aim of this activity is to consider new activities for your peer support. You could do this activity individually then feed back together, or you could complete it together as a group.

Write down the things that you do in a week that you enjoy, what you don’t enjoy and what’s missing. ‘What’s missing’ could be something you already do but would like to do more of, or something you don’t currently get to do.

As a group, consider whether you might bring the activities you like or are missing into your peer support in the future.

Mapping your partners and resources activity

Think about the individuals, groups or organisations that have been helpful to your peer support in the past or could be helpful to you in the future. Discuss how each person or organisation could support your group. Use the cards below, sticky notes, or write directly onto the circles. You might find it helpful to draw the circles on a large piece of paper.

These partners and resources will be different for every group or project. Examples could include:

Your best friend
Your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS)
Your library
Your council
Cafés nearby
Your local Mind or other local mental health organisations
Other peer support projects
Your funder at the local authority
Other local community and voluntary sector groups and organisations
National organisations and websites that provide information and advice.

Once you've identified these resources and partners, consider:

Which ones have been the most helpful?
Which are missing from the list?
Which do you want to have a discussion with?

4 circles, getting increasingly bigger, one inside the other. The smallest circle in the centre is labelled your group. The next circle around that is labelled carers, families and friends. The next circle is labelled existing partners, and the final circle is labelled existing funders and commissioners. Outside of all the circles, there are 2 labels - potential future funders and commissioners, and potential future partners.

Back to the toolkit homepage

Campaigning

Volunteering

Membership