How to Prepare Members of Your Support Group
(This page is referenced from Start a Virtual Support Group to Help With Stresses of COVID-19.)
After you have gotten a person interested in joining your group, it’s important
to prepare them for the experience of a support group. Here’s a procedure that is very useful for doing that.
- Arrange a phone call with each prospective group member.
- Suggest that they review some of the information in Start a Virtual Support Group to Help With Stresses of COVID-19. Let them decide which information that they want to review.
- Mention who the other members of the group are or might be.
- Ask them if they have any questions or suggestions about the support group process.
- Ask them to review and sign this Coaching Agreement for Peer Coaching Group Members if they agree to join your group.
Mention that all of the other members will share theirs, as well. - Verify the date, time and location of the upcoming two-hour training. (Subsequent meetings will be 90 minutes long.)
- Ask them to review information about your selected virtual technologies., and mention which technology that you have chosen. Ask for their feedback.
- Ask them to share up to a one-page biography with each of the other members before the training.
In your first group meeting, you will guide your members through their first support group experience. You’ll have a step-by-step set of talking points and a handy tool to do that.
“We’ve exchanged useful materials and so on.
Most helpful, though, is getting support, knowing you’re not alone.”
– Herb Smith, Alliance for Speaking Truth on Prostitution, Minneapolis, Minnesota
(Photo courtesy of Elly Fairytale on Pexels.com)