The core activity of SMART Recovery is the network of self help / mutual aid meetings; we are also a 'community of recovery' which offers mutual support outside of the meetings themselves.  This includes our on-line community which you can access through this website. 

This is a free on-line social network which is separate from Facebook etc.  This is intentional, some people attending SMART want to keep this to one side of their wider networks of families and friends, but we also feel it is important to allow people to eventually 'move on'. If you no longer want to be involved with SMART you can delete your account and it is gone, not following you around forever like other social networks!

Our on-line community includes 'groups' or forums, you can take part in the group for your region of the country so you get to know people more local to you.  

Join our community

All you need in order to join the community is an email address. Click the Community from the menu and then 'Join us' - follow the instructions carefully.  One option is to use an existing Facebook account to login.  This is a good option for some people, but some of your activity will show up on your Facebook page so it is less private. 

You are asked to choose a profile, SMART Participant, Family / Friend or Professionals. If you are interested in support for your own recovery journey, please choose participant.  You are also asked to select which part of the country you are in.  This will help us automatically join you to helpful groups. 

A few minutes after completing the sign up forms, you will be sent an email with a link to 'verify' your account. You must click this or your account will not work.  After verification, go back to the community page and enter your new username and password to enter the community. 

Using the community

When you log in you will see all the tools of our on-line community: 

• Status updates: Let others know how you are doing or share some useful recovery resource such as an article or video. 
• Friends: invite people to be on your friends list so that you see each others wall posts. 
• Groups: Enter a group and post to the 'group wall' or click discussion and create a discussion thread on a particular topic.  
• Chat: Learn how to use the two chat systems built into the website. Text chat anytime or voice chat for on-line meetings.  Text chat shows at the bottom of the screen and voice chat from the chat menu  in the community.  Browse through the list of groups, there may be others that you want to be involved with.  
• Blog: Why not blog about your experience of SMART or your recovery journey.  The community blogs are 'public' to any visitors to our site so are the external face of our community. Blogs are 'moderated' as we need to check they are consistent with the spirit of SMART Recovery before they go live. 
• Learn: We have an hour of videos and learning about SMART that everyone in the community is automatically enrolled on.  If you are training to be a Facilitator or Champion, you now access the training site through the community. 

House rules

Broadly speaking, if you keep to the spirit of the Meeting Guidelines we can be sure our on-line community will remain safe and helpful.  Obviously, a discussion forum doesn't need to be quite as structured and narrowly focussed as a SMART meeting, but please keep it at least vaguely relevant - this isn't the place for fantasy football, party politics or Justin Bieber whoever he may be.  

We do have a more detailed article on Website Terms and Conditions where SMART Recovery reserves the right to exclude people who use the forums to damage SMART or leave others feel unsafe. 

Family / friends

Our community includes a group specifically for the families and friends of people with addictions.  This is a place to share ideas, seek support and learn more about how SMART / CRAFT approaches can help you cope with your situation as well as encourage positive change for your friend / family member.  A couple of SMART Recovery facilitators keep an eye on the forum to answer questions and point participants toward useful sources of support and information. 

Professionals & Champions

There is also a separate group for professionals who work with people experiencing addictions. This is a space to learn about SMART and our partnership scheme, share ideas and learn about recovery.  This group is open to anyone with a professional interest in SMART whether you have a personal history of addictions or not.