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about jenn cusick

Jenn Cusick is a curriculum developer, facilitator, consultant, and one of British Columbia’s longtime leaders in peer support education.

Jenn has worked in community mental health since the early 1990s, with much of her career focused on developing peer support programs, training peer support workers, and helping organizations understand how lived experience can meaningfully shape the way we support one another.

In early 2020, Jenn was selected to develop and write British Columbia’s Provincial Peer Support Worker Training Curriculum. The curriculum launched in 2021 and has since been used by thousands of learners across Canada. She later adapted the work for post-secondary education; the resulting open textbook received a 2023 MERLOT Classics Award.

Through Luminate, which she founded in 2014, Jenn’s work has expanded beyond peer support into curriculum and learning design, facilitation, organizational development, and training across a range of sectors. She works with organizations to explore how relationships, power, belonging, and the environments we create affect people’s capacity to participate, contribute, and flourish.

Increasingly, Jenn’s work explores the relationship between certainty and uncertainty: what human beings need in order to feel rooted, what happens when our need for certainty becomes rigid, and how we can navigate difference, change, and complexity without losing our connection to ourselves or one another.

Across all of her work runs a consistent thread: a belief in self-determination, curiosity, lived experience, and creating more human ways of living and working together.

Jenn’s background includes

• Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP), Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association

• Advanced Level WRAP Facilitator, Copeland Center

• Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, Center for Appreciative Inquiry

• More than 30 years in community mental health, peer support, curriculum development, training, and facilitation

Jenn lives in British Columbia with her family. She is equally fond of familiar comforts and new adventures, loves movies and a good story, and has never met an interesting rabbit hole she couldn’t lose many hours to. She writes, makes things, and bakes a fairly decent loaf of sourdough.

Photo from the theatrical release of the Stranger Things final episode…(dressed as Nancy, Dustin, Robin, and Joyce), because seeing something in the theatre is one of my favourite things.

is a home for training, consulting, curriculum development, and ideas about how we live and work together.

Founded by Jenn Cusick, Luminate draws on more than 30 years of experience in community mental health and a deep foundation in the transformative nature of peer support, alongside work in facilitation, education, and organizational practice. From developing peer support programs and training to working with organizations across sectors, our work is grounded in the belief that lived experience, relationships, and the conditions around us matter.

We develop practical tools, training, and learning experiences that don’t begin with the assumption that people need to be fixed. Instead, we’re interested in understanding people in context: their strengths and experiences, their relationships with one another, and the systems and environments they are navigating.

At its heart, Luminate is about creating more human ways of living, learning, and working together.

WHY this work?

None of us lives or works in isolation.

Our well-being is shaped not only by what happens within us, but by our relationships, our communities, the places where we work and learn, and the systems we move through every day.

And those environments are shaped by us, too.

At Luminate, we believe there is enormous possibility in paying attention to relationships. Humans have the capacity to create workplaces, organizations, programs, and communities where people are more able to belong, contribute, learn, ask difficult questions, navigate differences, and support one another through uncertainty and change.

That doesn’t happen simply because we have good intentions. It requires curiosity about ourselves and one another, a willingness to notice power and assumptions, and practical skills for doing things differently.

This means paying attention to power, inequity, bias, and the barriers that shape people’s experiences—and creating spaces where difference is not simply accommodated, but valued.

That’s the work we’re interested in.

We believe that people have the capacity to live meaningful, connected lives and flourish—even in a world that is uncertain, imperfect, and continually changing.

Mental health and well-being doesn’t exist only within individuals. They are shaped by our relationships, our sense of belonging, our communities, and the systems and environments in which we live and work.

We all need enough certainty to feel grounded—and the capacity to navigate uncertainty, difference, discomfort, and change. We believe people flourish when they can belong without having to become the same, stay curious about themselves and one another, and remain rooted even when the world around them feels uncertain.

Our work is grounded in self-determination, curiosity, equity, belonging, acknowledgement, and humility.

 “I have been fortunate to collaborate with Jenn on various recovery based training initiatives over the past 10 years. She has always demonstrated a high level of skill and flexibly in her delivery of services. She has been very creative in responding to training needs that we have identified. Jenn is very passionate about supporting individuals to develop the skills to be effective in their roles whether it is their personal lives or professional roles. She has worked with a wide range of individuals and I have received positive feedback from my staff that have attended training programs that she facilitated.”

~Anthony Neptune: Fraser Health Mental Health & Addictions Rehabilitation and Recovery Manager

“Jenn is one of those people that you will occasionally meet that is truly and genuinely beautiful on both the inside and the outside.

I have had the pleasure of working closely with Jenn through my previous work with both adult mental health WRAP and a new initiative called High School WRAP, both in Edmonton, Alberta.

Jenn embraces and models the characteristics of an amazing facilitator....jenn coaches rather than “tells”; listens more than she talks, can expertly frame all participant feedback as positive and enhancing contributions; and brings so much of her warm, vibrant nature to the WRAP trainings. Jenn is kind of like a warm mug of your favourite hot chocolate on a brisk day...when Jenn facilitates a session, it just feels right and you leave with a satisfied smile on your face but still wanting more!”

~Komala Pepin: Former Manager of Recovery Supports Alberta Health Services - Edmonton Zone

“I have the ongoing pleasure of working with Jenn on developing WRAP strategies for my health organization. We are currently in the third year of a three year project. Working with Jenn has been extremely collaborative, allowing me as the busy project manager to turn many a responsibility over to Jenn. Jenn is strategic, thoughtful, professional, warm and engaging. She also meets all timelines and exceeds all deliverables, an organization’s dream! I recommend working with Jenn, she remains a valued partner in a project that would not succeed if she were not at the helm.”

~Shana Hall: Project Manager, Mental Health and Substance Use Services - Island Health

“As a recent participant taking part in a WRAP group facilitated by Jenn Cusick, it didn’t take long to be drawn to Jenn’s warm, welcoming, and personable presence. For one to open up about certain topics, especially those revolving around one’s mental health in a group setting can surely be an unsettling experience for some. But Jenn has the natural ability to engage a room and create a fun learning, trust worthy, and non-judgemental experience to guide those on their mental health journeys. 
Jenn simply cares about others and is the epitome of a strong mental health advocate. She was undoubtedly meant to promote and teach personal wellness to others and I personally can’t recommend the services of Jenn Cusick and Luminate Wellness enough.”

~Keith Wilen: Toronto, Ontario

“Jenn’s passion for WRAP and compassion for people shines through as a facilitator. She treats participants with unconditional high regard and as her equal while supporting their choices and options in the learning of the material.”

~Lauren Pearson: Project Coordinator at Alberta Health Services

“WRAP has had a profound influence on my life. Having a plan in place to support my wellness has helped me in both my personal and professional life. I attended a group Jenn facilitated and was amazed at her ability to create such a safe space. She has an ease to her that makes you feel instantly comfortable, fostering trust and unity within the group. Her passion is evident and her enthusiasm is infectious; it’s easy to feel inspired in her presence. She is definitely an asset to the health and wellness field.”

~Tara Strachan: BTR, CTRS - CMHA

“I have attended several workshops that Jenn has facilitated. Her passion for this work in encouraging wellness, motivation and empowerment of self is inspiring. She is not only knowledgeable of the material she’s presenting but always takes the time to enhance her own skills and education. When Jenn presents she is confident, charismatic and open to learning from her audience too. I can’t wait to keep learning and being inspired by such a wonderful facilitator. ”

~Celina Jeves: Fraser Health Authority Mental Health Worker

“Jenn Cusick is an extremely skilled wellness facilitator. It has been my pleasure to be a participant in two of her WRAP sessions. I have learned so much from her about facilitating an engaging, informative and positive learning environment. You will come away from Jenn’s session with tools to utilize in your everyday life and be inspired to continue your personal development.”

~Christine Naidu: Edmonton, Alberta

“I had the privilege to receive WRAP Facilitators training in 2014. One of my trainers was Jenn Cusick. This training provided a venue to explore our own thoughts about recovery and wellness and ultimately how we encourage wellness in people receiving care. Jenn was clear about what was expected of us as new facilitators. Her approach is caring, understanding and supportive. ”

~Krista Nabb: Vancouver Island Health Authority

“I was so fortunate to receive my WRAP facilitator training from Jenn Cusick. It was a great and lasting experience. I describe Jenn as the Frida Kahlo of WRAP. She is an artist of wellness who possesses the special ability to help one recognize and access their inner strengths. By building upon the positive Jenn has helped empower me with the tools to focus on personal and professional goals, self-betterment and the pursuit of happiness.”

~Kent Laforme: WRAP Facilitator BCSS - Victoria

“The Desire Map has helped me to focus on what I want out of life. It’s opened me up and I notice that my thoughts and feelings have shifted, in a subtle way. Not all life changes need to be big and bold to matter; small, gentle, consistent shifts can lead you to the right path and on to joy. I’m very grateful for this book and to Jenn and Danielle who created the space for me to really start to integrate the teachings in the Desire Map.”

~Jane Meachin: Desire Map Workshop participant