Group Support Updates as on July 14, 2021

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. I am thankful and grateful to all who are helping us keep the chat rooms supportive, safe, respectful, and compassionate for everyone. I appreciate your efforts.

A lot of things have happened in the Group Support world lately and so here I am with some updates and reminders in one place. I hope you may find this helpful!

Sharing Circle: From the world of sharing circles, the sharing time increased to 7 minutes from 5 minutes. We made this small change based on the discussions and feedback in one of the recent community meetings.

Teen Eating Disorder Support Room: As per community thoughts, we are making another change in the rotational rooms. Teen Eating Disorder Support Room will get opened every Wednesday w.e.f Jul 21, 2021 (Wednesday). It will be replacing the Teen Support Room.

Trauma Support Room: If you are unaware of this change, the Trauma Support Room will be opened every Sunday as another 24 hours rotational room. For more info about it, please check it here: https://tinyurl.com/zh9pazt8

Member Compassion Course: We reintroduced the Member Compassion Course. If you are a member and haven't taken this quiz yet, I invite you to take it. For more info about it, please check it here: https://tinyurl.com/535zzpu5

Doorkeeper Updates: In the doorkeeper updates, we made small changes. All mentors, chat room mod and a global mod could apply to become a doorkeeper and help us with the doorkeeper requests. As well as, mentors and chat room moderators who will be doorkeepers, they are recommended to host at least four 15 minutes check-in per week in their focused chat rooms to help us bring more support for the members and the community. Your help and support will be much appreciated.

Group Support Outreach Program: We introduced a group support outreach program to spread information and awareness about the group chat rooms, so we are able to provide more support to more members of the community. For more info about it, please check it here: https://tinyurl.com/sscw25pc

Room Supporters /Chat room Moderators Lead: We introduced a new volunteer lead role to help us bring better communication, support, and guidance for room supporters and the chat rooms moderators team. For more info about it, please check it here: https://tinyurl.com/waesejd2

Group Support Team Discussions: We restarted guided and supported discussions and skill-building sessions for room supporters and chat room moderators. For more info about it, please check it here: https://tinyurl.com/7edkbe8z

On the safety front, please know I heard your challenges and struggles and we are working to address them. It is my priority and I will keep you posted on the progress on this front. I appreciate you all for going above and beyond out there to keep chat rooms safe and supportive. If you ever need to vent, peer support, my PMs are always open! We will get there!

Special Invitation to Listeners and Adult-Teen Listeners! Thank you for all you do to provide support in 1-1 support sessions to the members. But, we could use your help and active listening skills in the group support chat rooms as well. We invite you to join us in the chatrooms and use your active listening skills to make members feel heard, acknowledged, supported, and validated in the group setting. Your small step could make a difference in someone’s day.

Adult-Teen Listeners are also invited to bring more support to the teen community. The members of the teen land and I will be grateful to you for joining us! https://tinyurl.com/ehkmtz83

Let’s continue to practice active listening skills in the group setting as well! Thank you for being here with me!