Post contributed by Helen Kursten-Holmes, Positive Peer Supervisor
The Positive Peers are a student-led volunteer group that sits within KCLSU Wellbeing. We aim to enhance the personal and collective wellbeing of King’s College London students by giving evidence-based information to improve student mental health and wellbeing, sharing experiences and connecting each other with helpful resources. We organise a variety of interactive events and workshops throughout the year that all students can participate in. Through our projects and events, we seek to promote, support and celebrate the wellbeing of students at King’s and to create a healthier and happier community. The Positive Peers team is divided into 3 main strands, each led by Positive Peer Supervisors. The strands comprise of Peer Run-Support, Peer Health Education, and Engagement and Online Support.
The Peer-Run Support strand delivers one-to-one and group support for students experiencing mental health difficulties. This includes Positive Minds, a 4-week course to support students experiencing low mood and mild depression. We will be launching this course in November, so if you’re feeling a bit low and finding university difficult, you can attend our peer support group Positive Minds or reach out for a one-to-one chat with us. Alongside this, we also offer wellbeing checks where we interact with new students to support their transition to university and to highlight KCLSU Wellbeing resources and other essential services. During Welcome 2020, the Positive Peers spoke to over 100 new King’s students in our one-to-one virtual King’s Check-in sessions. These sessions were offered to new students to make sure that they had everything they needed to get started and thrive at King’s.
The Peer Health Education strand leads on education and outreach through delivering workshops and facilitating initiatives about mental health and wellbeing, online, on campus, in residence halls, and for specific student groups. This strand’s activities include wellbeing checks, Cooking and Conversation, which is a cooking workshop in partnership with King’s Residences where students learn a new healthy recipe while getting to know other students, and our 3 part programme, Thrive. This 3 week course gives students the support to learn strategies that can promote positive wellbeing and equips them with the tools and activities that can be included in their daily routine so that they can flourish. Thrive is one of our most popular courses and in light of the pandemic, we have been delivering it virtually. To join our next Thrive programme starting in November, sign up for it using our Eventbrite page.
The Engagement and Online Support strand runs the team’s digital outreach by creating accessible communications for all students (including those not on campus) to improve their wellbeing and promote the team’s activities. The digital team also creates the monthly Positive Peers newsletter, detailing our recent news and campaigns, upcoming events and wellbeing tips. You can read our October newsletter by clicking here. The team also writes blog posts for the KCLSU website and each blog post delves into a variety of wellbeing topics, tips and themes, our most recent one is Settling in at University. In addition to this, we have a podcast and lots of content on social media to help boost wellbeing and increase awareness of mental health and wellbeing events and concepts. For Wellbeing Week (2nd November – 6th November), we are organising a Positive Peers Instagram takeover of Project X’s Instagram and collaborating with Big Pitch Energy on a competition that will be open to all King’s students, staff and alumni, where you can win £50 and be featured on our newsletter. So, make sure you keep an eye out on our socials for more information about how you can take part!
We hope to see you at our upcoming events and if you have any questions, our inbox and social media are always open so feel free to get in touch.
Visit our website: www.kclsu.org/help/wellbeing/positivepeers
Email us: positivepeers@kcl.ac.uk
Connect with us on social media:
My name is Grace and I am the Senior Community Facilitator at KCL. With winter approaching, things aren’t as festive as they usually are this time of year. So, I am bringing to you my favourite good news from the last few weeks to hopefully make you smile and give you a break from the bad news that 2020 has brought us so far.
