PACER Training

PACER is a mindfulness and social justice-based group training, consisting of six interactive online learning modules and six corresponding weekly group video-conferences.

PACER is designed to provide participants with tools to cope with COVID-19-related demands and challenges.

Pandemic Acceptance and Commitment to Empowerment Response (PACER) Training is a mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and social justice and collective empowerment-based group training, consisting of six interactive online learning modules and six corresponding weekly group video-conferences. The program is unique in that it builds on the insights gained from stigma reduction and empowerment interventions previously carried out by our team members.

PACER goes beyond psychological coping to support participants in building collective resilience and empowerment. Between June and November 2020, PACER has been offered to highly impacted and impactful groups, such as frontline service providers and individuals/families directly impacted by COVID-19, as well as community leaders who play key roles in advancing community responses. A total of 97 service providers and community members completed PACER. Our data showed that PACER is very well received and significantly decreased participant’s stress level. Qualitative feedback has also been positive. Furthermore, over 20 graduates have joined the PACER-Train-the-Trainer program and contribute to the pandemic response by taking on the new roles as PACER co-facilitators. 

Over the next six months, with the additional resource support from MSH-UHN AMO COVID-19 Innovation Funding, PROTECH will be rolling out additional PACER training. The goal of PACER is to increase psychological flexibility, resilience, and capacity to respond to pandemic related stressors at work, at home and in the community. You are eligible to participate in PACER if you are:

• aged 18 or older
• a frontline service provider/staff at any healthcare / social service setting, OR a caregiver for someone directly impacted by COVID-19
• experiencing high levels of stress related to COVID-19 response
• language fluency in English, or Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese)

PACER has been designed to support serve service providers from culturally diverse communities, including the service providers from Chinese Canadian communities that have continued to experience increased stigma and racism at work and in the community. Thus PACER is offered in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

For upcoming training schedule, please check our latest posts or Protech calendar; or announcement on this page.

To sign up for PACER, please complete our Eligibility Screening Questionnaire which can be found here. Completing this form will add you to our waitlist. One of the PACER coordinators will contact you when a cohort slot opens up that aligns with your availability. 

For more detailed information, please contact our PACER Coordinator: pacer@projectprotech.ca

UPCOMING PACER SCHEDULE

English PACER Training (1 Cohort):
Starting April 22, 2021, for the self-directed online learning modules, and the first video group meeting will start on Thursday April 29, 2021 from (7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.) (for six consecutive Thursdays)

Cantonese PACER (1 Cohort):
Starting April 22, 2021 for the self-directed online learning module and the first video group meeting will start on Thursday April 29, 2021 (7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.) (for six consecutive Thursdays)

Mandarin PACER (1 Cohort):
Starting April 21, 2021 for the self-directed online learning module and the first video group meeting will start on Wednesday April 28, 2021 (7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.) (for six consecutive Wednesdays)

Please also check our front page for latest information.

Please heck out our short video to hear the voices of our PACER participants (5 Minutes):

To learn more about how the PACER training address the challenges faced by the frontline service providers during the COVID pandemic, you can view the recording of our Resiliency Dialogues webinar: Addressing Frontline Service Providers Stress: The PACER Resilience Responses on our Youtube Channel. https://youtu.be/U40PAjx2ZwQ