Together in Purpose: Recognizing the People, the Practice, and the Path Ahead

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025
Time: Doors open at 9:00 AM | Event: 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST
Location: Rideau Community Hub, 815 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, ON

Event Overview

Join CWCLN for a Networking Breakfast of reflection, recognition, and relationship-building as we officially launch our Peer Support Collective and Community of Practice. This gathering brings together facilitators, community leaders, organizational allies, and care workers to uplift the people doing the work, celebrate the impact of culturally grounded support models, and build momentum for what comes next.

This event is held in celebration of Global Peer Support Day — an annual recognition that takes place each October to honour the power of peer support in transforming lives and communities. It acknowledges the wisdom, care, and leadership of those with lived experience who offer connection, advocacy, and healing to others navigating similar paths. The day celebrates both formal and informal peer support efforts around the world and recognizes the importance of this work in building compassionate and resilient systems of care.

This event honours the emotional, relational, and often invisible labour behind peer-informed care — particularly in the hands of Black and racialized communities. Through storytelling, shared wisdom, and meaningful conversation, we aim to strengthen connections and lay the foundation for a community of practice that is trauma-informed, values-based, and built to last.

Whether you are a peer facilitator, clinical or community care provider, nonprofit leader, allied health professional, or system partner — your voice matters in shaping this space. We invite individuals with lived experience working in health and healing spaces, those with a personal or professional interest in peer support, representatives from community health centres, nonprofit organizations, and clinical providers. Guest speakers will share insights and strategies, and participants will help shape the future of this growing community.

 Who Should Attend

• Individuals with lived experience offering support in their communities
• Trained peer facilitators, mental health navigators, and wellness practitioners
• Community workers supporting youth, families, or racialized populations
• Health and social service professionals working in trauma-informed or person-centered care
• Staff working in hospitals, clinics, or community health settings
• Equity and wellness staff within educational or institutional environments
• Mental health advocates, cultural leaders, and care workers
• People supporting systems change, equity, or relationship-centered approaches
• Allies and champions of lived experience leadership and care models
• Those interested in deepening collaboration across community and clinical spaces

This Networking Breakfast is Free and open to anyone committed to care work, equity, and peer-informed practice — whether you hold formal roles or informal wisdom, work in community or clinical settings, or are just beginning to explore this path. You are welcome here.

REGISTER: https://form.jotform.com/252167002722245