"Self-Help Group Centers"

[Ed Madara]

I put together a list of self-help group centers that provide free help to:
- self-help groups
- those seeking to find a local self-help support group, and
- those seeking to join with others to start a needed new mutual aid self-help group in their area.

It includes the ones I know of in Australia and in the rest of the world. It's at:
http://www.mentalhelp.net/selfhelp/selfhelp.php?id=859

I would be grateful to learn of any others that are not on my list. You can send me an e-mail at [e-mail]

I'm over in the States. I work at the New Jersey Self-Help Group Clearinghouse. We also provide a modest mostly volunteer-run national service for the States called the American Self-Help Group Clearinghouse.

Take care and hope,

- Ed

[Jeannie May]

Hey Ed, you could add a link to this site... I have already added a link to your site.

[Ed Madara]

Dear Jeannie,

That one listing is just for self-help group centers or clearinghouses that help people find or form groups.

We also have a keyword-searchable database of national, model, and some online groups that serve primarily the States: http://mentalhelp.net/selfhelp/

It's great that you've built such a fine website for self-help group leaders here. It's a shame more leaders haven't yet joined to take advantage of the peer support. Our early research of a hundred groups in New Jersey reflected how the majority of leaders felt the "most important resource" they had to help them were... other self-help group leaders! - to turn to, in order to learn what to worry about, what's not worth the sweat, and to pool their ideas together.

We would have to consider whether to start a separate listing for online sites like your own. There are a few other online support groups for self-help group leaders that are available. But they tend to be primarily for group leaders in a particular local area. Would you indeed welcome more of us from outside Australia to your board here?

P.S. One question i have is...
Aside there from attaching a file to a posted message here, is there any other place here to upload files that may be of interest to self-help group leaders? For example, I recently wrote a few ideas for promoting "shared leadership" in groups that I would be glad to share.

[Vicki Pedler]

Hi I would just like to add a new site for Those looking for support with Spinal cerebella Ataxia.

http://ataxiafriends.ning.com/ Thanks

vicki Pedler