Reflection on peer support at the outset

Sharing representations of the criteria, contributions and limitations

The COS project team’s reflection at the start of the project enabled it to share its representations and to define collectively the criteria for choosing the peer helpers who would intervene.

The criteria for being a peer helper

Being curious
Having a sense of humour
Empathy
Discretionary qualities
Good listening
To be willing to « give of oneself
Be available
Step back
Motivational ingredient: having been helped, therefore wanting to help
Wanting to be seen as a peer: evolution of the status of the assisted
To have a good knowledge of one’s own culture and country of origin in order to be questioned
Capacity for introspection

The gains of being a peer helper

Valuing one’s career, one’s path, one’s experience
Sharing experience, sharing conviviality
To take a step back from one’s own experience, to gain perspective on one’s own experience
Learn the ability to nuance, to reformulate
To allow for constructive criticism of the host society
Learning to mobilise a group
Mastery of the French language
To be a force of proposal
Facilitating communication, mediation
Being open to difference
Open your network and gain a network
Allows one to sublimate one’s failures (of one’s journey), resilience
Allows you to learn about yourself
Through the peer helper’s journey, one takes ownership of one’s own capacity to act = empowerment

Risks or limitations :

Being unsympathetic in certain situations
Being deaf
Being judgmental, having a critical eye on the person
Being confronted with racism, misogyny about the situation of the other/culture of the other
Risk of a single integration model and imposing one’s own integration model
Reliving painful stages for the peer carer
Being confronted with the violence of the other’s discourse, with their history
Over-identifying with the other’s journey
Not knowing how to express difficulties
Difficulty in dissociating from the other’s story
Feeling obliged to share
Feeling obliged, not daring to stop being a peer helper
Feeling responsible e.g. in translation in hospitals/schools
Taking responsibility as peer helpers
Beware of thinking you know without keeping up to date with new developments

Possible threats (to peer carers, professionals, the project...)

Preconceptions and prejudices that would reinforce the view of the foreigner
Feeding the feeling of persecution, racism
Conspiracy thinking
Loss of identity and reference points, of French culture
The group effect
Do not go beyond the stage of experimentation
Outcome requirements
Questioning working methods
« Jealousy », devaluation of the professional role
Very cultural view that does not take into account other cultural references
Generate conflicts within teams, within partners
Omnipresence of the peer helper, the peer helper indispensable for the professional/for the newcomer
Not enough funding

Definition of roles

Some of the participants were peer helpers, others had a dual role as business leaders and peer carers.

The missions have been defined and a contract of engagement signed

AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

Co-facilitating group times

Introduce the professions in the sector
Present the expectations of an employer
Present the labour law for this sector

Accompanying the person individually

Helping to find internships
Participating in coaching, preparing for the job interview
Networking

Participate in the assessment of the experience (strengths/limitations)
Participate in dissemination events

AS A REFUGEE PEER HELPER

Co-facilitating group times

Sharing the experience of the integration process (brakes, levers)
Present your job(s) (assets, difficulties)

Accompanying the person individually

Networking
Moral support
Support for administrative and business development activities

Participate in the assessment of the experience (strengths/limitations)
Participate in dissemination events

As for the partners, they have undertaken to act as co-facilitators on a voluntary basis during the 3 collective sessions.

« At the beginning, we had to understand the project first, so I made myself available for the meetings. I was there to give information to the refugees, to the peer helpers as well, and to the accompanying persons (CIP): to specify the procedures, to explain how to use a client portfolio, to network in order to find an internship, to give a presentation of the professions, training courses, the prerequisites to be able to go to training courses according to one’s project, to present what the catering industry is in France and to explain the differences, to give some keys on the pitfalls to avoid.“

« I came to present what the refugee food festival was all about.”