Foyer Comrades

The Foyer Comrade network is our peer support system that connects Foyer staff with colleagues from across the Foyer network to build valuable relationships and work together to improve practice. It’s available for all staff within the Foyer network.

You’ll be paired with someone in a similar role, and we’ll rotate comrade pairs every four months to enable you to make three valuable connections over the year. As far as possible, we’ll try to link you with people nearby in case you’d like to meet in person. When it’s time to swap, we’ll hold a catch-up webinar to share learnings, challenges and insights.

Comrades can decide between them how often they meet, their method of connecting, and for how long. This flexible approach means pairs can work their meetings around existing commitments. 

How comrades spend their time together is up to them – from coaching to sharing problems, and from asking advice to coming up with new ideas. Here's what some of the current comrades said about the programme:

"I think it’s a really positive way to discuss areas of improvement or success stories but with someone outside of the organisation but that also understands the job!"

"I feel the comrade meetings have been very positive. We have discussed our young people and their struggles through lockdown and how staff have come through challenges. My comrade set up a meeting for us with her engagement officer which was informative and shared lots of ideas."

"I have really enjoyed the meetings we have had so far and each time there have been tangible things I have come away with to action."

"I have found it really useful! It’s been nice to be able to offload to someone outside the organisation, but to someone who actually understands the organisation, role and client group."

"Every time we have spoke it has been positive and helpful. With being new to this role, it was great to speak to someone with experience and talk about day to day struggles / positives to work on and how another business runs their Foyer. Not to have a structure of the conversation has helped – it means we can have a little talk of the latest updates from our service and know that we are not alone."

If you would like to take part, get in touch with [email protected] We’ll send you a short form to fill out and will pair you up as soon as we find a good fit for you.