Call for Certified Peer Support.
We provide a support line to talk through life's challenges and discover creative ways to express yourself. We also provide art kits, virtual workshops, and in-person creative expression workshops — for all ages.
If a certified peer supporter is unavailable, leave a message — we'll return your call. Please use an alias.
We encourage people to discover — or rediscover — healthy ways to express what they feel, navigate life's challenges, talk about their goals, and support their well-being.
Email or call us to receive updates on events, programs, and creative wellness materials and kits that can be mailed directly to your home. Available for all ages.
This service provides peer support, emotional, and creative connection. It is not emergency services or clinical therapy. If you are experiencing an immediate crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis support line — see our Resource Center below, including 988.
A few minutes of quiet, whenever you need it.
Small, interactive exercises to help you pause, breathe, and reset — no account, no pressure.
Finish the Picture
A few random shapes appear. Draw around them and turn them into something creative.
Breathe With Me
Follow the circle. Expand as you inhale, hold, then contract as you exhale.
Thought Drop
Type a stressful thought. Watch it turn into a leaf and float away.
Creative expression, delivered a few different ways.
Whether by mail, screen, or in person, our programs meet people where they are.
Art Kits
Art kits are mailed or distributed directly to participants and include all materials needed to complete a project, as well as a step-by-step guidebook.
Request a kit →Virtual Workshops
Join us for virtual weekend workshops led by professional creatives. These workshops offer guidance, creative exploration, and time to make art together in community. Participants who provide an email address will be notified of all upcoming dates and times.
Get notified →In-Person Community Workshops
We bring creative expression workshops — visual art, eco art, writing, movement, upcycled and sustainable fashion — to your location, for all ages. Led by creatives, or emotional support groups led by certified peers, tailored to your community or organization's needs.
Email us an inquiry →Creative Expression
Accessible for All Ages
Our goal is to make creative expression more accessible for all ages and provide supplies that can serve as a positive step toward feeling connected.
A Pathway to Wellness
We support people who use creative expression as a pathway to connection, wellness, purpose, and personal growth — in whatever form that takes.
Support, and inspiration, beyond the call.
Our peer supporters connect callers to information and services that may help individuals and families further — including places across New York City to find crisis support or creative inspiration.
Why Wellness Peer Programs exists.
Wellness Peer Programs Inc. is an anonymous, confidential, peer-led support organization that pairs a certified peer support line with creative expression programming — art kits, workshops, and community events — for anyone navigating life's challenges, regardless of age. We exist because healing often starts with being heard, and because creative expression is one of the most accessible, human ways to process what words alone can't reach.
The Problem
Consistent, affordable mental wellness support is hard to come by — appointments take weeks, therapy can be costly, and creative outlets are often the first thing cut from a stretched budget.
Who It Impacts
People of all ages navigating parenthood, caregiving, job-related stress, and creative individuals who use art as their outlet — many of whom quietly go without support of their own.
Our Programs
A live, anonymous peer support line; mailed art kits; virtual and in-person creative expression workshops; and a resource center connecting callers to NYC-based services.
Why Anonymity Matters
An alias is enough. That single choice removes the biggest barrier we hear about — the fear that asking for support will follow someone back to work, home, or their community.
One of our own leaders spent years working within a New York City hospital's inpatient behavioral health unit. She saw firsthand how art and music sessions gave patients something to hold onto — a rare hour where they weren't just patients, but people creating something of their own. Many counted down the days until the next session. That experience became part of the seed for Wellness Peer Programs: pairing a caring voice on the phone with a paintbrush, a song, or a blank page.
Angela Hamilton
Executive DirectorAngela Hamilton is the Executive Director of Wellness Peer Programs, bringing extensive experience in behavioral health, crisis intervention, peer support, and community-based care.
Her professional experience includes working within New York City hospitals, including behavioral health inpatient psychiatric units, where she developed firsthand knowledge of the challenges individuals and families face during periods of mental health crisis.
Angela has also worked with the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, gaining experience in crisis response, suicide prevention, and connecting individuals to appropriate behavioral health resources and support.
Her experience extends beyond the hospital setting through her work with a behavioral health nonprofit focused on addressing gaps in support for individuals after discharge — work that highlighted the importance of continued support during the transition from hospital care back into the community.
These experiences shaped Angela's belief that mental health support should be tailored to the individual — a truly person-centered approach, not a one-size-fits-all model. People need connection, understanding, and accessible support throughout their journey.
As Executive Director, Angela combines her behavioral health experience, peer-support expertise, crisis-response knowledge, and passion for community care to develop programs designed to meet people where they are. Her vision is simple: expand access to peer-led creative expression support and help create a mental wellness system where people feel supported.
Who we'll serve, and where we're headed.
People of all ages, citywide
Individuals across New York City seeking a caring connection and accessible creative outlets — from parents and caregivers to healthcare workers and creatives.
Launch the line, launch the kits
Launch the certified peer support line citywide, distribute our first art kits, and host our first round of virtual and in-person creative expression workshops.
Grow reach, deepen partnerships
Grow our peer supporter team, expand workshop offerings across boroughs, and deepen partnerships with NYC cultural institutions and community organizations.
How your gift is used.
Training & Certification
Funding certified peer supporter training and creative workshop facilitator preparation.
Line Operations
Keeping the peer support line staffed, confidential, and reliably available to callers.
Outreach & Partnerships
Building relationships with NYC hospitals, schools, community organizations, and cultural institutions.
Evaluation & Growth
Measuring impact and reinvesting in art kits, workshops, and programs so we can serve more people over time.
Because everyone deserves a place to be heard, supported, and connected.
At Wellness Peer Programs Inc., we are dedicated to providing mental wellness support tailored to life's challenges — paired with creative expression as a pathway to connection, wellness, purpose, and personal growth. Support is a call away.
Ways to Give
- One-time or recurring donation via our secure giving page
- Corporate or foundation grants supporting peer support and creative programming
- In-kind support: art supplies, workshop space, or professional services
- Volunteer as a certified peer supporter or workshop facilitator
Questions about giving? Reach us at info@wellnesspeerprograms.org.
Every gift funds training, line operations, art kits, and outreach.
SupportOur Mission
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Wellness Peer Programs does not sell, share, trade, or rent donor information to any third party, nor send mailings on behalf of other organizations. Donors may opt out of communications at any time by contacting info@wellnesspeerprograms.org. Donations are securely processed through a third-party payment processor.