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Community
Peer support groups and meetings online and in-person welcome women with substance use disorder who are seeking sobriety. To join our community, you must be at least 18 years of age and identify as female. WFS embraces all expressions of female identity and welcomes our sisters from the LGBTQ+ community and those with trans experiences. To join wfsonline.org, after completing the registration form, you will receive a verification email. If you do not receive this verification email, be sure to check your spam folder. Once you complete verification, you will receive a welcome letter from the Community Care Group.
Groups
In the online community, there are various groups to fit the needs of women in various stages and reflecting a variety of interests. There are online groups where new moms gather and others for those in the third chapter of life. The Newbies group provides support and tools for recovery among the newly sober. LGBTQ+ and Allies offers a safe space for women to share and then there is a book club, a writers gathering, yoga and more. If none of these is a fit for you, the WFS New Life Program was designed to be effective when used individually as well as in groups.
Meetings
Women for Sobriety meetings are available to some geographies in-person and internationally online. Dozens of virtual meetings occur each week on Zoom on wfsonline.org. All are led by certified facilitators (CFs) well-versed in the New Life Program and with at least one year of continuous sobriety.
The in-person meetings are available in certain locations across the United States and Canada. Please visit the Meetings page to locate a meeting near you.
Anything discussed at a meeting is confidential. The identity of members is not revealed outside the group. It is up to the discretion of each woman whether she wants to break her own anonymity as a member of WFS.
Meetings are held at least once a week and are typically one hour to ninety minutes. In-person meetings use a discussion format, so chairs are usually placed in a circle and the ideal size is six to ten women. This provides every woman a chance to be involved in discussions if she wishes. To reduce distractions and allow everyone to feel heard, participants try to refrain from handwork, eating, and side conversations. Triggers are reduced by refraining from using specific names/brands of alcohol or drugs, not telling drinking or using stories, and coming to meetings sober, without having ingested any alcohol and/or drugs the day of the meeting.
All WFS meetings follow a structured format:
- At the beginning of in-person meetings, the 13 Acceptance Statements and the Mission Statement are read out loud and the certified facilitator (CF) may remind the group about the guidelines. Typically, each member of the group reads one of the 13 Statements and then the entire group reads the thought-action (italicized portion).
- Each woman introduces herself by saying, “My name is __ and I am a competent woman.” She then shares a positive action (how she handled a situation differently) or a feeling (she was able to identify and/or respond to differently) and selects one of the 13 Statements to which it relates.
- If a participant has an urgent need for support, feedback, or encouragement, she will have an opportunity to share.
- A topic will be introduced, typically based on a piece of WFS literature, and the discussion portion of the meeting begins.
- At the end of the meeting, participants stand in a circle (if possible) with joined hands and recite the WFS Motto: “We are capable and competent, caring and compassionate, always willing to help another, bonded together in overcoming our addictions.”
A silent donation is collected at in-person meetings. The suggested donation is $2 – $5 (more if possible, less if necessary). However, no one is turned away from the meeting if they are unable to give a donation. These group donations are sent directly to the WFS office to help support the organization’s services.
Meetings are run by a CF who is thoroughly acquainted with the New Life Program and its philosophy. The certification process includes having read Turnabout, Goodbye Hangovers, Hello Lifeor Beginner’s Collection, demonstrating knowledge of the New Life Program when filling out the CF application and receiving approval from the organization. CFs are then provided with a facilitator’s manual and other training materials.
Meeting participants should remember that CFs are not skilled professionals. They are peers in recovery who serve as volunteer stewards of the New Life Program by coordinating meeting logistics and sharing their knowledge of the program. They may sometimes need to refer a woman to professional help if the woman’s needs exceed the capacity of the group.
Sometimes two CFs run a group together, or they may identify other helpers as appropriate. If you have any concerns about how a WFS meeting is run, please contact the office or a Board member.
