Student Wellness Ambassador Training

Helping you help others

Not every challenge is a mental health crisis, but as a caring classmate, you want what’s best for your peers. You want to be supportive, but you need a bit more information or you’re worried about saying the wrong thing. 

Student Wellness Ambassador Training equips everyday students with above-average skills to help them identify, approach, and refer classmates to the most appropriate mental health resources. Trained participants are not licensed or certified—they are friends, team members, and role models who care about the well-being of their fellow students. 

Upcoming trainings

Training format

The training helps you serve as trustworthy and approachable classmates who help find solutions to personal issues that may come up, advocate for healthy balanced lifestyles, and connect your peers to more advanced resources when necessary.

Training is flexible and customized to fit your needs. It includes a bundle of four 60- to 90-minute trainings covering the topics below in a single day training format. Weekly or monthly recurring meeting times may be available by request. To make things easy, you’ll work with a single point of contact who will help schedule the entire training series. 

  • Mental health listening skills, signs of distress, and how to make a referral
  • Alcohol and other drug harm reduction and early intervention
  • Bystander intervention and sexual violence prevention
  • QPR suicide prevention training

Perfect for existing groups

If you already have a student group or organization in place, Student Wellness Ambassador Training is a logical next step to give your group the skills to help your peers navigate everyday stressors. Existing groups typically have recurring meeting times and an administrative structure that serves as a launchpad to add peer support. 

Five roles of supportive peers

1.      Friend. You care deeply about the well-being of others, and you are trained how to listen for behavior concerns and signs of distress. You reduce the stigma of opening up about mental health topics with your comfortable and approachable style. 

 2.      Team member. You are embedded within the fabric of your academic program and make connections between your peers and university resources. 

 3.      Role model. You naturally focus on personal development and have great ideas for ways to stay happy, healthy, and whole while in school. You are an includer and positive influence to those around you. 

4.      Advocate. You take the pulse of the student body and understand the challenges students face firsthand. You are solutions-focused and promote positive messages in support of self-care and healthy systems. 

 5.      Educator. You have above-average knowledge about some sensitive topics, and you share information in a way that builds confidence and removes barriers.

 

Peer supports are...Peer supports are NOT...
  • Trained in interpersonal, intervention, and conflict resolution skills to serve their classmates.
  • Highly knowledgeable of student support services available through the university.
  • Trained to recognize warning signs of issues that require referral to more advanced resources.
  • Influential leaders in their social networks.
  • Role models for active, healthy, balanced lifestyles.
  • Reliable, trustworthy, honest, and approachable.
  • Trained counselors or therapists
  • Spies to “tattle” on classmates
  • Hall monitors who police and enforce school policies