Who are community guides

Hi @Bubbles3,

community guides are volunteers within the Sane community who help others get the most out of the on-line forums.

They are people who have themselves experienced mental illness, and are therefore in the position of offering a unique insight into what it is like to experience mental health problems, seek treatment and navigate a path towards wellness.

I say "towards wellness" as many sufferers continue to experience mental health symptoms to varying degrees, even with effective treatment. This is not to say we don't have our good days, too!

Each Community Guide has a different story to tell. We are all individuals and feel confident in engaging with Sane forum members at different levels. Some of us are on-line daily and some of us are less frequent visitors to this site.

Welcome to the forums, @Bubbles3. It's nice to meet you. My name is Sahara and I have around the forums for a few years. For the record, I suffer from anxiety and have had experienced an episode of major depression in the past.

Please let us know if there is anything specific you would like to know. You are welcome to ask any questions.

Hello @Sahara

Thanks for explaining what a community guide's role is.

Do you actually get interviewed by sane and work under the umbrella of volunteering for sane or are you just accepted from input on here?

This subject ties in with the issue currently being discussed re new posts being missed.

great subject @Bubbles3

Hi @Former-Member,

it might be best if @NikNik or one of the other moderators (I'm not sure who is on right now) explain the selection criteria for becomming a Community Guide.

Don't be surprised if you don't hear back about this straight away- as I know that the moderators are always really busy attending to stuff behind the scenes at Sane, and can't always be available to answer every question right away.

As for new posts being missed, I haven't read that discussion yet.

Community Guides do try to have some input when a new member posts or else someone writes a post which does not yet have an answer. However, due to the individual nature of people's problems, not all Community Guides would feel comfortable answering to every possible situation that arises... especially if they don't have any lived experiences in that area.

It's absolutely fine for any member to write a reply to any post- in fact, it can be most helpful for a person to hear from someone who has had a similar experience or can relate emotionally to the post in question... it doesn't have to be a Community Guide- all respectful, honest and considerate discussion is welcome.

Hello @Bubbles3

Hi @Bubbles3

In this thread, I give a bit of an overview of the current Community Guide program.

We are in the middle of revising it - not much will change though 🙂

Great question!

Nik

Hello @Bubbles3

Community Manager who is @NikNik looks after and helps us Community Guides to help others

How are you today xx

HI @Bubbles3

Another good question!

Moderators and Community Managers are employees of SANE.

Community Manager's role specifically is overseeing the whole community - so the main things I work on are related to commuinity growth and community engagement. This means things creating annual engagement plans (eg: what special events are we going to run in the forums - see Special Events), working with members to help them get the most out of the Forums, creating make sure the community continues to grow, look at how members use the forums and look at what we can do to improve it and making sure that members are getting support from their peers. The list goes on, but I hope that gives you a small taste of what I do 🙂