You can bring healing resources to your community by starting a Finding Hope Support Group. Below is a list of things you need to do in order to start a group. Some things might take longer than others. Don’t get discouraged. The support, education, and healing you will find for yourself – and other survivors – is worth the effort.
01
Find another survivor who is willing to participate with you as a co-group leader. All groups require a minimum of 2 group leaders and 1 participant.
02
Find a location and/or online platform. For in person groups, we recommend a local community center, library meeting room, business that would be willing to donate space, or hospital or clinic that may have teaching classrooms you can use. Try to avoid homes. Make sure your location feels safe for group participants. For online groups, we recommend a platform that allows you to share screen and has chat capability.
03
Register your group: once you have another group leader, a location, a day and time, you can post your group.
We would also suggest the following:
- Determine in advance the way you will communicate with group members: We recommend creating a new email address that you only use for your support group or using a third-party app such as Band, Slack or a Facebook closed group.
- If your meeting will be conducted online please indicate meeting platform in the notes. Please do not include online meeting links, or private phone numbers.
- We recommend creating a new email address that you only use for your support group.
- If you want to recruit publicly, you can use the community flyer to post information about your group.
- Don’t get discouraged. These support groups often start small and build over time.