What is a mentor?
As a mentor you will be taking your lived experience of overcoming obstacles and barriers and using this to support others in a similar situation to overcome theirs and build their resilience to manage their situation for themselves.
“I mentor because I wish a service like this had been available for me when I was first diagnosed. I had a lot of false starts in managing my condition. Now that I feel I am, I’m really happy to be able to help others do the same” (Mentor, 2019)
Long Covid
The Peer Partnership is designing a peer support service for people living with long covid in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. People with long covid experience excessive fatigue, “brain fog“, breathlessness, anxiety and muscle aches. With 1 in 4 people who have had a covid infection experienicng long covid, more methods of support need to be developed. People living with long covid need opportunities to improve knowledge, confidence and ability to self-manage while ongoing research seeks to provide treatment and care options. Peer support, and the sharing of experiences, strategies and coping methods, can be an important part of providing effective and meaningful person-centred support. Join our Peer Support for Long COVID volunteers here.
Type 2 Diabetes
As a type 2 diabetes peer mentor volunteer, you will support people to understand how to live well with type 2 diabetes and support them to reach their goals and to grow their knowledge, confidence and ability to manage living with type 2 diabetes. Our type 2 diabetes peer mentors meet up with their mentees once a week either in person or online for up to 4 months. For more information or to apply for this service, please visit this link: Diabetes Peer Support
HIV
Our first peer mentor program, which has been successfully running for 6 years will match you with a mentor to help you gain the knowledge, confidence and ability to live well with your HIV diagnosis. Our volunteer mentors are all experienced with living with HIV, and understand how hard it can be. They can support you for up to 4 months to support you through. For more information or to apply for support from this HIV service, please visit this link: One-to-one Peer Support – Brigstowe
Co-Creation
We are running a Co-Creation Program that invites people living with a physical or mental health condition, or protected characteristics, to join us in becoming Peer Advocate volunteers. These Peer Advocates will be partnering with us to design, develop, and seek funding for a peer support project relevant to them. Visit our Peer Advocate page for more information.
If you are looking for peer support for other issues, please see below for other opportunities in Bristol (Please note, these services are not run by The Peer Partnership)