October 2026 Community Update!

Dear Community,

I hope that you all are well!

Things are good here! I was just sharing with H that I have some turtles by my house. I built them a turtle island. H thought it’d be fun to share it with you all. This is version 4 or 5. The original versions kept not working as well as I hoped. I had to keep iterating. So far so good on this version!

   

Speaking of iterations - please find my latest, simplified, streamlined, and hopefully much better version of the Way of the River: Paddling Together here. I think this is version 30+. I’m very much hoping this version is better. If you have a chance to check it out, then I’d welcome your honest thoughts!

On the CMU front, we’ll soon be messaging many of you to participate in the virtual client study. We will be rolling out a certificate and badge for completion. Once the study is done, we’ll roll it out to everyone.

We are also making good progress on the peer certification front and will be submitting our curriculum for review soon.

I’m with H in that this is one of my favorite months of the year too. A sweater, jeans, and a cup of coffee looking at the colorful trees. What a great season.

I am thankful for all of you!

Best,
GlenM

H

Happy October, my favorite month! (Does anyone here do any autumnal activities? Lemme know below!)

I spent much of my month assisting our Mentor Leader, @ChillingRain, with renovating the Verified Listener Team. Lots of cleanup and reorganization over these weeks, but the team is looking stronger than it's been in a long time. Thanks to everyone who’s helped us get back on our feet! If you’re interested in joining the team to get more listeners verified, drop Rain a PM. Becoming a verified listener is a critical milestone in the listener journey. If you are not yet verified, check out this post (HERE) after reading this update!

Another area of intense focus has been the Welcome Committee. @Sealiously has kindly stepped up to move operations along. We need many new members on this core onboarding team. If you’re a listener who wants to make an immediate impact on our platform and make newbies feel welcomed into our tribe, please check out this post (HERE) for the criteria to apply. 

Hope

The main update this month has been a change to the internship extension policy to make it more flexible and supportive for interns who need extra time. Extensions will no longer require additional coursework beyond the first four-week extension period, which should help reduce added pressure for those already working to complete requirements. Maximum durations still apply (12 weeks for Community Track and 24 weeks for Student Track), and the update is currently being trialed until December 31, 2026. Full details here

We currently have a couple of mentors in trial for the 7 Cups Internship Program, and we’re excited about the extra support they’ll bring as we move into October. Outside of that, it’s been a steady month with ongoing maintenance and coordination across programs.

On the community front, I put out two new community posts this month. The first, Rethinking Success, is all about how real progress actually comes from making mistakes and putting in the repetitions, rather than expecting to get everything right on attempt one. The second, The Trap of "What If", dives into why replaying past mistakes in our heads just drains our energy, and how switching to a "Next Play" mindset helps us focus on what we can actually do right now. If that’s your kind of thing, I drop shorter, bite-sized versions of these reflections in my ongoing thread, Life, As It Is (Reflections). Feel free to drop in, follow along, or subscribe to get updates. 

SoulfullyAButterfly

This month was focused on more progress on the Peer Support training front, with exciting updates on training/assessment perspectives. In addition, we are planning the next community event and reviving other therapeutic areas like purposeful closed group spaces such as the Huddles for both adults and teens.

Bookworm4

ATL and Safety reports were processed in a timely manner as per our community guidelines. Please note that you can reach out to me directly for any concerns or questions

Ambassador Highlights:

AnnaSilverberg - Quality Mentors/Teen Stars, Listener Coaching Team & G.Admin

Fall is here, with all the colorful leafs 🍂
Quality Mentors/Teen Stars have been diligent in sharing their wisdom, guiding our listeners in their path of listening. I am very proud of all the work they do. If you’d like to become one, click this link here and if you meet the requirements, feel free to apply.

Our amazingly brilliant Listener Coaches have been putting in a lot of work, coaching and providing information where it’s needed. This month, 74 requests were replied to and each one done with care, lots of active listening as well as empathetic guidance.
The passion they carry is out of this world, and that’s something that is easy to see 🙂‍↕️
💓🐑💓
On other work, we’ve been exploring boundaries in Teenie town, as well as focusing on understanding the chatroom rules better, you can check out our teenified chatroom rules here 🙂‍↕️

Embrace the time of 👻🎃🦇Halloween 🦇👻🎃 and have yourself a wonderful day 🍂

Rebekah - Safety Team (Patrol, Outreach, Discussions), Safety & Knowledge Sub-Community & G.Admin

Hi everyone! Safety Team has been absolutely smashing records this month, with so many new onboards and a record number of flags from some users on SP. Their dedication and hard work absolutely does not go unnoticed 💙

We have a new teen PA! @cheerfulKiwi1776 has shown a lot of excellent work within safety, and I'm so excited to see where she goes! 🌟

As always, we are recruiting for Safety Patrol! Apply HERE if you meet the criteria!