Are you looking to join an Emmaus Peer support group for caregivers?

We currently have a single group operating within the city of Regina, Saskatchewan. We meet on the fourth Thursday of each month for prayer, resource sharing, and support sharing.

Due to pandemic-related health and safety factors, we are currently holding these sessions online using the Zoom platform. This has allowed our group to include individuals from outside the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, and outside of the province as well. Upon return to in-person meetings, we will be considering maintaining a second, online, session each month as well.

What happens at aN Emmaus support meeting?

Prayer: Meetings begin with prayer led by one of our support group members.

30-second Check: After prayer, we do what we call our ’30-second check’. This is a quick round-table where participants share what kind of spiritual, mental, and physical state they are bringing with them as the meeting starts.

Introduce New members: We take a small bit of time to introduce any new participants for the evening.

Shared Learning: We then introduce a topic of shared learning and discussion. This may involve a member sharing a new resource, shared group discussion on a previously agreed-upon topic, or a guest speaker. We will generally allow up to 30 mins for this segment of the meeting.

Group Sharing: After the shared learning segment has been completed, we allow time for participants to share about a situation or experience they feel they need to share. Other participants are committed to listening without judgment to whatever is shared (and frankly, as we often remark on, given our own lived experiences, it would be a challenge to scandalize anyone!). Other participants will not seek to offer advice or try to ‘fix’ any issues. What we can do is offer each other a non-judgemental listening ear, and share our own lived experiences; what worked and what did not, for us.

Prayer Intentions: As the meeting draws to a close, participants share particular prayer needs for the coming month. members commit to praying for these intentions in the weeks between meetings. Prayer intentions are gathered and emailed out to the rest of the support group. This includes those who were unable to attend so that they also have an opportunity to request prayers as well as pray for others.

Prayer for Next Meeting: Participants volunteer to lead either opening or closing prayers for the next meeting.

Closing prayer: Is led by one of the meeting participants.

If you would more information on our group and whether our peer support gatherings might be helpful in your caregiving situation, contact Deacon Eric Gurash using the form below: