Would you prefer to chat online with other young people about what’s on your mind? If so, the Peer-to-Peer Community at Kids Help Phone may be an option for you. Here, you can get to know the online support forums — what they are, who can use them, how we help protect your privacy and more. After reading this page, you’ll have more information to decide if the Peer-to-Peer Community is right for you!
Using the Peer-to-Peer Community made me realize that we’re all in this together and never alone. It’s good to hear other people with similar experiences talking about them, and I can see how much my own struggles are real and understandable.
— Young person using the support forums
The Peer-to-Peer Community is a collection of online support forums. In the community, youth can anonymously share their personal experiences, offer inspiration and ask questions to connect, comfort and cheer each other on.
It’s a community co-created by youth, for youth. Kids Help Phone collaborated with hundreds of young people across Canada to build this platform and test it out. With youth input every step of the way, you can now navigate mental health info and support through authentic, real-life experiences in the community.
Whether you’d like to use the platform to tell your story, provide encouragement or get help (or all of the above!), this space belongs to you. When you visit the community, you’ll find:
This space belongs to you, so you can write about anything on the forums in English or French. You can connect with other young people about whatever’s on your mind. For example, you can post about school, racism, friends, religion, trauma, discrimination, hope, isolation and more. No topic is off limits in this community — if it’s important to you, it’s likely important to other youth in Canada.
The Peer-to-Peer Community is open to young people across Canada. It’s available to anyone with an Internet connection from coast to coast to coast. You can view the forums if you’re outside of Canada, but you can only log in when you’re in Canada. To get the support you need in the country you reside in, you can visit the Child Helpline International website.
When you’re in the forums, you’ll be talking to other youth. We want to let you know that the community is most applicable for people who are 12 to 26 years of age. Some individuals may find certain content on the platform hard to read about. If you need support at any time, or if you’d like to find a resource that may be a better fit for you, you can check out our other e-mental health services.
You can read content on the support forums 24/7 without an account. If you’d like to write a post / reply, you need to make an account first. This is so that our moderators (trained youth staff) can help maintain a safe space by reading the posts / replies before they’re published. To help protect your privacy, we’ll log you out of your account automatically after 10 minutes of inactivity. For more information on how the Peer-to-Peer Community works, you can view the terms of use and community guidelines.
Kids Help Phone is committed to ensuring and protecting your privacy. We only store information that helps us understand and improve our service. We’ll never reveal identifying information about you. To find out more about what this means, check out our Peer-to-Peer Community’s privacy policy, which includes information on duty to report.
Canada Health Infoway is fueling the Peer-to-Peer Community at Kids Help Phone. Thank you to Canada Health Infoway for helping to empower, validate, uplift and remind young people that they’re never alone! We’d also like to thank The Co-operators, Graham Burton Foundation, Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, United Way Newfoundland and Labrador and Fondation Jacques & Michel Auger for promoting young people’s resilience, autonomy and strength by supporting this important work!
