Building Hope Through Connection: A Q&A with the Survivors of Suicide Community Care Series Team

Jul 21, 2025

When it comes to grief after suicide loss or the ongoing struggle with suicidal ideation, few spaces exist that center lived experience, peer connection, and true understanding. The Survivors of Suicide: Community Care Series (SOS: CCS) was designed to fill that gap. Facilitated by a team with personal experience and deep compassion, this six-part series creates a space for shared healing, mutual support, and stigma-breaking dialogue. We sat down with Sarah, Carrie, and Zach to talk about what inspired the program and what they hope participants will gain.

Q: What inspired the creation of the Survivors of Suicide Community Care Series?

Carrie: “I think it’s important to have peer-led suicide survivor groups because I think there’s a better chance to heal when somebody’s actually been there, and it’s not just something that people learn from books. It’s very important to be with somebody who’s been there and survived it and is living through it, the experience.”

Sarah: “I think seeing the strength from individuals with lived experience on either side, survivors of a loss or survivor of suicide themselves, seeing the strength and just power that comes in themselves when they share their parts of their story, or talk about the loved one, or talk about their own perseverance… I think it provides greater hope.”

Zach: “Almost like a tangible versus like a thought, where, like you see the person in front of you who’s surviving. Connection over content. It’s what our main focus is.”

Q: Why are peer-led spaces especially important for suicide survivors?

Sarah: “Personally, I think there’s such an importance in a holistic approach to healing. And that includes community in society and the way that stigma impacts people and the tools that we have in our own back pocket, as well as how we can lean on others.”

Zach: “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Carrie: “Exactly, and you don’t feel so alone, right? I think that’s a huge thing, is that you don’t have to necessarily even say too much, because people understand the suicide grief more than just like a grief, which, at most, most counselors, that’s all they have, you know, dealt with in their life, is grief.”

Q: How does connection with others help in healing?

Zach: “Create kind of a dialog again, like breaking down those barriers between and creating a space to support that it’s okay to feel the heart… There’s a potential for, like a witnessing of what it is that someone’s feeling that has so much power… it’s really empowering to have someone else look at my own experience and say, like that’s valid, or that, like, yes, that was hard.”

Sarah: “When we’re talking about… what’s underneath the suicide or suicide loss, ‘what’s your iceberg’? There’s so much, especially around a suicide loss or suicide struggle that is in private, is hidden away, is done silently, secretly… And it probably would be… empowering, hopefully, hope-inspiring to hear from, maybe, you know, not your parent, but a parent, not your spouse, but a spouse.”

Carrie: “I think everybody can offer each other hope.”

Q: What do you hope participants will take away from the SOS series?

Zach: “Hope… and I say that now with deep respect for the word… Hope used to feel vague or even useless to me… Whether that be… the tools to get through… or even just the sense of community and connection… I really like the word hope now, because it is all encompassing.”

Carrie: “Mine was hope and peace, like some sort of peace that, like talking to others with lived experience, gives you… like some sort of peace. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know, I know what it feels like… You just take pieces away from different people… and put them in your toolbox and heal. I think you can heal with peer support.”

Sarah: “When I hear you say peace. I think of like that quote of ‘grief is love with nowhere to go.’ And I think that ties back to why it is so important to have these peer-led community building spaces, because it’s somewhere to put that love—to put that grief.”

Q: How does the series aim to break down the stigma around suicide?

Carrie: “Just the idea of giving space and making space and time and the circle itself… people… sitting there quietly, you know, listening, absorbing your story. I think that’s it… Being that we’re all in the same position, it will help break down the stigma and maybe make people stronger.”

Zach: “It is uncomfortable. And like, modeling is really one of the coolest things… sharing my own story and hearing other people share their stories, and how empowering that is… Hopefully creating that space for other people to dip their toes into something that’s really challenging.”

Sarah: “Really normalizing conversations around suicide, right? Because… it brings courage to the topic, the more that we can talk about whatever the topic is. We talk a lot about the fact that this is not a space for moral or ethical debates around the topic of suicide. This is solely a space to connect and build community.”

Q: What would you say to someone who’s hesitant to join?

Carrie: “You don’t have to say anything—you can just listen… Maybe somebody will give you the best coping skill ever… I think it’s empowering.”

Zach: “Something that works, you don’t need to sell it to people… I would almost ask that person, well, do you have the capacity to show up in that kind of a space? Because if you do it, if you don’t, that’s okay. It’s just maybe not your season right now.”

Sarah: “Participation looks different for everybody… Sometimes that means walking in the door, looking around, not liking the vibe, and leaving – you showed up – that’s still 110% effort… All of those things are just completely acceptable.”

Explore & Register for Each Session:

Sarah (they/them) is currently a School of Peer Support Facilitator at CMHA-Calgary. They have over 5 years’ experience in the Human Services field, which includes walking alongside youth struggling with suicide and their families. Sarah shares personal lived experience of losing multiple friends to suicide, as well as living with their own lifelong suicidal ideation. They wish to create conversations where mental health struggles are normalized and help to develop communities that inspire hope and empowerment

Outside of their role at CMHA-Calgary, Sarah is a creative soul who enjoys their alone time. They are a full-time cat parent with two fluffy boys (named Peanut and Bebito), their favourite day-off activity is binging terrible reality television, and you may occasionally find them out at a local 2SLGBTQIA+ event or an EDM show, when their social anxiety allows.

Carrie (she/her) is a current student in the School of Peer Support at CMHA Calgary. With over 25 years of lived experience navigating life with a mental illness, Carrie brings deep empathy and understanding to her peer support journey.

After the heartbreaking loss of her eldest son to suicide in 2019, Carrie spent years of healing and growing through unimaginable grief. That journey led her to a calling: to support others walking similar paths, helping them find hope, connection and healing.

Carrie is passionate about creating a safe, compassionate space where people can share their stories, feel supported, remember loved ones and work together to break the stigma surrounding suicide and mental illness.

Beyond her advocacy and support work, Carrie is a proud wife, mom to three adult sons and grandma to two, soon to be three. She finds her peace and joy in family time, exploring the outdoors, photography and the love of her four dogs.

Zach (he/him) is a recent Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies grad who’s been working in mental health ever since, as a crisis line responder, support worker, and now a student at the School of Peer Support.

His journey includes growing up with a sick parent, navigating loss, addiction, estrangement, and losing a close friend to suicide. Stigma kept that loss hidden for months.

Once convinced he had to handle everything alone, Zach now believes in the power of connection and community. He’s here to help take a sledgehammer to silence and stigma, together.

Also, he used to LARP (yes, foam swords and cloaks) and is still a proud fantasy nerd. Zach is looking forward to holding space, sharing stories, and building a healing space, one session at a time.

The Survivors of Suicide: Community Care Series is more than a program—it’s a space to be witnessed, supported, and understood. Whether you’re carrying the grief of suicide loss or living with suicidal thoughts, this peer-led circle invites you to bring your whole self. Come as you are. Heal together.

Learn more and register: Visit Recovery College Calgary – SOS Sessions