Developing Peer Support for the HOPE Project

 The HOPE project is an international collaboration aimed at developing effective, rights-based interventions for homeless individuals experiencing distress in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya. Imroc is a key partner in this initiative, leveraging its expertise in peer support training and co-production to ensure impactful outcomes. 

 This project aims to create a sustainable and effective peer support system tailored to the needs of homeless individuals with mental health challenges in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya. By involving local peer leads and focusing on co-production, Imroc ensures that the training is relevant, accessible, and impactful. The project will not only train peer support workers but also build a framework for ongoing support and development, addressing the unique challenges faced by homeless populations in these regions. 

The HOPE project exemplifies Imroc’s commitment to expanding recovery-focused practices internationally. Through collaborative adaptation of training materials, hands-on training sessions, and continuous support, the project aims to make a significant difference in the lives of homeless individuals with mental health issues in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya. This initiative highlights the power of peer support and the importance of co-production in creating meaningful and sustainable change. 

Spreading Hope Through Peer Support: Our Journey to Nairobi with the HOPE Project 

Reflections from Danny Bowyer Imroc Peer Training Lead (mental health pathway) 

In late February, Ell Manning and I travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, on behalf of Imroc and in conjunction with the HOPE project and King’s College London.   

The HOPE project aims to improve and increase the support for people who are homeless and have mental health challenges living in Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana. One of the methods for doing so is through peer support. Many African nations operate within a collectivist mentality, utilising community and family networks as opposed to the more individualistic approach we’re used to in Britain, whereby mental health challenges are seen as and treated as an individual “problem” (this is a generalisation, and digging into the social and economic reasons for these culture difference cannot be done without exploring the impact and legacy of colonialism in Africa and Europe which I encourage everyone to do, but won’t delve into here).  The first stage of this project was to introduce participants to the foundational skills and approach of peer support. This is where we come into the picture.   

Our Foundations of Peer Support training was designed to meet the needs of individuals who deliver peer support (formally or informally) within their roles that don’t require the layers of theory and practice explored as part of our longer-form peer support training. In the UK, this could be people working in community spaces who encounter and offer lots of secondary support to individuals, i.e. working in a community centre, a foodbank, etc., where the primary reason to visit may not be for peer support/mental health support. Still, so often, it is a crucial part of the role. Our aim in Kenya was to provide participants with a framework for delivering safe peer support and the knowledge and confidence to replicate and deliver this training within their communities.   

Participants came from Ethiopia, Ghana and in and around Nairobi. There was a variance in people’s professional backgrounds and current workplaces, but what united the room was first-hand lived experience of mental health challenges. When I first started training peer support workers in Cambridgeshire, I was always intrigued to hear the experiences and variances of people from different places from me. Whether it was different parts of Peterborough, across Cambridgeshire or the occasional trainee from across the county border, in the UK, a person’s postcode can make a big difference in culture, accent, and worldview but also as to what mental health services are available and how they’re implemented. When I started training with Imroc, that range spread out across the UK, and what always stood out was that despite our differences, our humanity and shared experience always found their way into the training space. It is heartening that the same was true here; despite coming from different cultures and locations and having vastly different mental health provisions, when people shared their experiences, they still struck the same chord, and I still felt the same feeling of empathy leap across the room. Though perhaps an aspect of this speaks to the ‘global’ movement of Western mental health and how language around mental health wasn’t a barrier, the same diagnoses and predominantly the same treatments have made their way across the globe for better or worse. However, so has lived experience solidarity and peer support, I felt the same sense of connection and resonance as I have in every peer training space in my career to date.   

While I will remember the warm sunny days, the dawn chorus, and the lush green flora, what will stay with me longest is the stories, the words, and the wisdom of the 11 unique individuals I had the privilege to meet and share in a small part of our journeys together with.   

Ell and I reflected together on the final night. We had been on a journey, literally (a 9000-mile round trip), delivering the training, connecting with and learning from the people we had met, and reflecting on our route to this moment. How had we come to be sat on a bench admiring the sky on a temperate summer’s evening in Nairobi? You could claim it as two successes of the UK mental health system, though I think we’d both challenge you on that point. Instead, a million and one battles were fought and survived with many a loss and just enough wins. Having both faced times when we couldn’t imagine tomorrow, imagining that one day we’d be sharing nuggets of the wisdom from that journey with anyone, let alone in Kenya, would have seemed pure fantasy. But here we were. So, too, for our participants, the adversity that had to be overcome for the thirteen of us to share that space is remarkable, and yet, here we were.    

Each of these remarkable individuals is now armed with the Foundations of Peer Support. They are ready to go forth and spread peer support within their communities and create many more remarkable spaces brimming with hope, potential, and empathy.