In the 2022-2023 academic year, the Health & Wellness Peer Support Service (PSS) at the St. George Campus underwent notable changes. Operating under the Health & Wellness Centre, the PSS, led by a team of trained student peer supporters, adopted a new model by including Work Study students for the first time, reflecting the range of student experiences at U of T.
Between October 2022 and April 2023, PSS expanded its services by relaunching in-person sessions at two locations alongside its existing virtual support, which allowed the peer supporters to provide 96 sessions.
The PSS Pop-Ups initiative was also introduced to reduce barriers and raise awareness, featuring strategic mini-PSS sessions designed to give students an understanding of how talking to a peer supporter can help. The peer supporters provided 240 mini-PSS sessions across five pop-up events.
In March 2023, a third in-person PSS location was piloted in collaboration with the University of Toronto Students’ Union at the Student Commons. With 10 PSS sessions in just one month, the service will be offered at the new location throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. This reflective shift aligns with PSS’s ongoing commitment to offering one-to-one, drop-in, confidential, and non-judgmental spaces for students, fostering a supportive campus community.