Intentional Peer Support

An update on IPS Australia

SHARC will be transitioning out of its role operating the Australian Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Hub, effective 30 July 2026. IPS Central will continue to support and deliver IPS in Australia beyond this date. We acknowledge and thank everyone who has contributed to the growth of IPS in Australia over the past nine years. For questions, please contact info@intentionalpeersupport.org

About IPS

Intentional Peer Support (IPS) is an internationally developed peer support model that invites powerful, transformative relationships. Peer workers learn to use relationships intentionally – seeing things from new angles, developing greater awareness of patterns, and supporting and challenging each other in trying new things.

For over twenty years, IPS has been inspiring and training people in community, peer support and human services settings all over the world to be intentional about the way they connect and build mutual relationships. It has been widely used as a foundation training for people working in both traditional and alternative mental health settings.

For more information, please see our IPS Aus Flyer.

For information on IPS and upcoming training, please contact au@intentionalpeersupport.org

These trainings are funded by the Victorian Department of Health.

We offer a range of training programs

Core Training

(5 days)

Providing an extensive overview of the IPS framework, this training is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the IPS tasks and principles, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create mutual relationships where power is negotiation, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of ‘service’.

Advanced Training

(3 days)

This 3-day Advanced Training deepens IPS practice, plays out the principles and tasks using real-life scenarios, enhances ways of building mutual connections, and teaches participants the art of co-reflection. We also focus on crisis as an opportunity to connect, maintain mutuality, and build a culture of healing. The Advanced Training can be customised to your organisation’s needs.

Train-the-Trainer

(5 days)

Through this Train-the-Trainer course, we’ve designated hundreds of IPS enthusiasts to teach the full content of the Core Training where they work. Having IPS trainers at your organisation ensures IPS is sustainable and evolving.

Manager Training

(2 days)

Equipping managers and people working alongside peer workers to understand the IPS framework. Having IPS-trained clinicians within your organisation helps ensure that the work of peer workers is well supported and understood. This framework will also support all participants, irrespective of their role, to reflect upon themselves and to develop a greater awareness of the relationships they form.

This training really opened my eyes to how I interact with people and how I can build meaningful relationships in my life and at work

I have grown on personal level as well as in my role as a peer worker.

The manager’s training gave t terrific insight into how lived experience should be integrated into day to day practice and how effective it is and how to embed it within an organisational framework.

I came away with better skills to support individual peer workers and my organisation on how to better utilises and grow our peer worker service.