How to Become a Facilitator

Dakota FIsher
Dec 31, 2025
5 min read

Updated: May 28

National Group Facilitator

Certificate

Facilitating an RRPS group for the first time is an amazing experience!

This program will walk you through at least 1 of the RRPS Whole Health programs and help you build effective communication and group development skills while you do it!

The process of facilitating your first groups through this certificate program is not just helping you facilitate RRPS groups. You can transfer these skills and what you learn during this training into a skill to facilitate most groups well!

Employers who understand the rigorous process CAPS uses to equip you as a skilled group facilitator will value your National Group Facilitator (NGF) Certificate. Here, you pick up a curriculum, usually unknown to you, and go through a process of experiencing the program, getting an understanding of it, learning the skills to present well, and then putting it together to successfully present something you've never presented before!

All of this indicates something very important:

you can learn never seen before curriculum
then ---> present it well.

During your training, you will be paired with an experienced RRPS Mentor who also is an Advanced Facilitator. You will get 30 minutes with them after each presentation for them to highlight your strengths and give you any constructive feedback you might use to improve your skills.

Step - 1:

To become an RRPS Facilitator, you must first, participate in an RRPS group. You cannot become a Facilitator for each of the different groups by only participating in one type of group. In order to qualify as a Facilitator of a specific group, a potential Facilitator has to participate in that specific group.

You can participate either in a live group or complete the Self-paced version in order to move on to the Preparation & Presentation stage.

There are 4 programs/groups/classes

Radical Recovery Peer Support (RRPS) is for people who are experiencing general distress or a mental health challenge.
RRPS-University is for people experiencing distress but who are either attempting a form of education beyond k-12, or who are thinking about doing so.
RRPS-Liberation is for people with a criminal or substance use history. Driving Under the Influence is an example of one factor that might qualify a person for the Liberation program.
and RRPS For Those Who Served is for Veterans only who are either looking for recovery or wellness related support, or other Veterans who want to learn ways to support other Veterans.

Special Requirements to Become a Liberation or University Facilitator

For RRPS Liberation, you must have at least one of the following: a substance use history or a criminal record to be able to be an RRPS Liberation facilitator.
- Alternatively - a waiver* may be possible under certain conditions. If you would like a waiver, please contact us and put "waiver" in the subject line or as the reason.
For RRPS 4 Those Who Served - You must be a Veteran.
- Alternatively, a waiver may be possible under certain conditions. If you would like a waiver, please contact us and put "waiver" in the subject line or as the reason.

For RRPS-University - a Facilitator must show proof that they have at least 25 credits of college experience, or that they have received at least a certification in a particular skill and have worked in that field for 3 years.

*Waivers typically are saved for people who do not have a particular lived experience but can show proof they have worked successfully with that particular group of people for a 2 year period. Proof of hours required is determined on a case by case basis based on the quality of hours and training, and they would need at least 5 references willing to write 1 full page (please make sure they don't highly underwrite or overwrite the 1 page limit) about how they know the person to have helped people with that lived experience.

Step 2:

Self study (online) and a test

The self study course is all about learning the core competencies of Peer Support, facilitation skills, person first language, cultural perspectives, ethics, and a primer on handling crises.

These help us create an engaging and safe space for people to share their experiences and bond as a social group.

After completing the online course work, the co-facilitation training will begin

Present their first recorded demo. Facilitators in training present Day 1 material one or more times with at least 2 participants. Participants can participate for free in this and get no credit. The presentation will be conducted without supervision and will be submitted for review.
After this you will meet with your Advanced Facilitator.
co-facilitation training involves working with a partner to present a group of 6 people while an Advanced Level facilitator supervises. This would be done on a recorded Zoom session so the recording can be viewed to make sure the presentation process went smoothly. The Advanced Facilitator will grade you on whether you met all objectives during presentation.
- A person who participates in the full presentation (all 5 days) of a co-facilitation training group automatically gets credit for participation and can also move on to co-facilitation training. If they elect to pay $50 they can get the full amount of time as education credit for their specific continued education needs.

Remember, please have them check if we are approved education providers for the type of continued education they need. You may have to send message updates to students after any group to address anything the Advanced Facilitator may say you have missed.

The online program on our site will have an instructors guide and other resources you can study to prepare for your demo.

Step 3:

After becoming a co-facilitator you can become a solo facilitator.

A solo facilitator will demonstrate the ability to complete all tasks on their own in a hands on presentation to 6 students. This is different from taking turns accomplishing successive steps with a co-facilitation partner.

A potential Facilitator may need to find participants for their training group. We cannot guarantee that we will have willing participants. We suggest trying to network with others in the mental health recovery, substance use recovery, or criminal Reentry fields such as Peer Supporters, or Forensic Peer Supporters. You may use social media or any other form of outreach you'd like to try.

Step 4:

Maintain certification

A facilitator or cofacilitator will offer at least 3 groups per year in any RRPS Whole Health model.
They must maintain at least a 7 out of 10 rating and offer all participants an opportunity to file a review on canvas while offering any support or technical assistance required for the participant to be able to fill out the review if desired.
A facilitator will also be responsible to pay a $100 annual fee to be able to facilitate any course of which they are a facilitator.

Finally:

Providing groups without our permission (without being a Facilitator) violates copyright law.
There is a level of training you can achieve where you can train the Co-facilitators and Facilitators. If you are interested in this, contact us and put "ALF" in the subject line or as the reason.