Room Supporter Role Idea - Feedback Needed!
We know that there are many Listeners who regularly participate in group support rooms, are passionate about their room, but are not necessarily ready to apply as a group mod yet. Keeping this in mind, we have an exciting new idea for a role that we would like your feedback on!
Role: Room Supporter
A listener (adult or teen!) who is dedicated to specific group support rooms, spending time supporting members in that room, building a community bond, steering conversation toward topics relevant to the room and verbally de-escalating conflict when needed.
This role would serve as a stepping stone for listeners who want to work toward becoming a community centerred moderator. Room Supporters will receive specific training on de-escalation and verbal conflict resolution from the Support Team Leaders of each team but will not have access to the moderation tools that a moderator has. The role of the Room Supporter is not to moderate the room. It is to provide quality listening and build community within the room, but also be trained in active listening and be able to verbally de-escalate a conflict.
What do we aim to achieve through the Room Supporter role?
- Integrate listeners spending a lot of time in group support into sub-communities and support teams.
-Allow new listeners to have more guidance when venturing out as a listener into group support.
- Help with community building between listeners and members.
- Create a stepping stone role to group support moderator, similar to forum supporter role before forum mentor.
- Increase quality of listening in group support.
- Allowing listeners to become acquainted with a specific room and its dynamics before venturing into higher leadership positions within the team.
The role would work similarly to Community Centered Moderation. A listener would be listed in the Subcommunity Leaderboard as 'Room Supporter' and appear similarly to how the Mod Badge shows up in rooms for Community Centered Moderators.
Ideas about this idea for a role? What are some pros and cons you can see?
Special shout-out to @sweetLily41 and @SupportiveMonkey46 for putting in a ton of work into drafting up this role!!
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@RaCat@brilliantTurtle89
@Kate_ i love this idea.. Nice work ladies..
I just have one question would the supporter team leader have a guide to follow for the say training or its base on their knowledge?
nice steping stone for folks :) and definitely has potential for community building.
nice steping stone for folks :) and definitely has potential for community building.
Please take this quick survey about the role!
I honestly love the idea of this. Taking the step to become a mod is kind of intimidating at the moment with other activities and responsibilites that I'm taking part in.
One thing that I would be curious about is if there could be a slight exception to where Room Supporters could possibly lead one Group Discussion a week/every other week after co-leading with someone who is a mod after a set amount of Group Discussions or a certain amount of time?
I understand alot of this and agree that it seems like a good idea, except for:
1. I don't think the group topic should be controlled towards the chat group topic name (Compassion for Compassion corner, Thinking for Thinking space). I mean theoretically I can see the point in the idea however in reality I think it would be a bit of a chokehold that strangles the life out of the cups community. I think room name does loosley attract people but people mainly room-hop more or less to find the right "chat atmosphere" that they're looking for... The great thing is with lots of different rooms, there is greater scope that something will fit. I do think people look for whatever topic is ailing them though but its not as important as the atmosphere; If the atmosphere doesn't suit, even if the topic is right, they will be more likely to go into a different room with a different topic for the correct atmoshpere. Because yes everyone is coming here for help with their particular issue but as its a chat site more than a crisis line or a 1-1 listener chat, I think people come more importantly for a sense of Belonging and a sense of being Part-of, In a Community, Accepted, With Friends that their mental health normally restricts them from being able to get in real life. When people invoke this feeling from the chat, it feels like magic. Restricting peoples freedoms will make this difficult to happen.
2. I think "Promoting a positive, supportive atmosphere through taking the lead example rather than through trying to control" should be added to the job description! I was shocked to see the "promoting a positive atmosphere" bit left out of the original idea! That was the main point! Every single person in a room has a certain level of influence over the atmosphere in the room. Sometimes, all it takes is one member who comes in with a really loving, positive way of speaking and the whole atmosphere changes -- Like a ripple in a pond, people tend to follow suit. The atmosphere becomes lovely, supportive, caring and genuine. But it takes someone to take that lead, strong example -- And they don't do it by trying to control. The minute people try to control it (no offense group mods, I know its your job and I'm not critisizing you at all but I think you might recognise what I'm about to say:), the minute people try to control it, the more people start to rebel against the control and the atmosphere becomes tense and hostile.
Some things to keep in mind and to chew over a bit, I hadn't finished the thoughts through to their end conclusion but I have to go :) Muchlove Red Meeko xxx
@RedMeeko You make spectacular points. Thank you for voicing them!
@InternalAcceptance Thankyou Internal Acceptance :) That put a smile to my day... I hope things go well for you what with the greater responsibilities and I'll see ya around! xx
@RedMeeko thanks for thinking this one through and presenting other options. Nice to hear your ideas.
@Kate
It is an awesome idea, please do execute it
@MarayaMUNROE We're on it! Stay tuned 
A no clique room so everyone feels comfortable and shares
Ohhhh....is this just a female room? I'm embarrassed if so...😥😥
@Kiwifella I don't think so :-) so don't be embarassed! I think it's just Kate's name for it, not a room just for females....and if it is, you could just be an honorary one and belong regardless haha :)
Also, hello! :D
@SmilesToSmile
Haha...took me a bit to click. Hey Hi. I sorta try to make myself fit in...you know...like furniture lol...😉
@Kate
