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<\/a>Initially, they planned to launch the program for the fall 2025 semester, but after analyzing some surveys on how students are struggling, they\u2019ve decided to launch it for this semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a few surveys done,\u201d says Avis. \u201cThrough counselling and through the student experience survey that speaks to the kind of mental health, loneliness and isolation\u2026 So this is kind of an initiative designed to try to address some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are sessions at both campuses; the \u201cpods\u201d meet at least once a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s led by student facilitators\u2026 and the idea was to kind of create a space of safety and authenticity,\u201d says Avis. \u201cWe wanted it to be led by students, but the students are supported by folks in the orientation and transition staff so that they have someone to reach out to if there\u2019s something that isn\u2019t working well or there\u2019s a student in crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although experts come to talk to students in some of the sessions, Avis says that the pods do not feel like lectures.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We alternate between] sessions that are kind of more around skill building and sessions where the group just gets to hang out and forge those social connections,\u201d says Avis. \u201cEven with the skill-building sessions, we\u2019re trying not to make it too much like a lecture\u2026 We want it to be like a dialogue. The idea is also that the Peer Pods facilitators are going to be plugged into these resources so that, hopefully, they can be like mentors for their students and guide them toward the appropriate people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avis adds that the facilitators are more than capable of helping the students go through their struggles and help them succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t work with the wrong people in it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they\u2019re the kind of people that just seemingly have this gift for putting people at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avis says that the program is taking any feedback to improve and help the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would invite students that are curious about it, that actually have some ideas about what students need, to let us know through the facilitators how we can better meet their needs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Mitchell says that thus far the feedback they\u2019ve received has been positive but that they\u2019re open to suggestions wherever students see fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really nice emails and connections so far from students saying how happy they are that this exists,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cSo we will be really closely evaluating it this semester so that we can make sure that we are meeting the needs of the students and their reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those unsure of joining, Avis says Peer Pods is welcoming to all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s probably something really validating and reassuring to hear other people talk about some of the things that you\u2019re struggling with,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Registration for Peer Pods is open on the college\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Camosun College has launched a new program to help students feel supported as they transition into post-secondary life. Many students struggle with loneliness, stress, and mental-health challenges\u2014Peer Pods is designed to address these issues and give students a sense of belonging. Camosun students lead the Peer Pods groups, which meet each week for one hour. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,327],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-february-19-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26498,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26496\/revisions\/26498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}