The Humanist Association of Connecticut is supporting the expansion of SMART Recovery in Connecticut.

SMART Recovery is a 25+ year old, science-based, abstinence-oriented, self-empowering addiction recovery program, and is a recognized resource for substance abuse and addiction recovery by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Center for Health Care Evaluation, The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), US Department of Health and Human Services, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

You do not need to be in recovery to be a meeting facilitator.

Your task will be to chair the meeting, set the agenda, and teach SMART Recovery tools when appropriate.

You will need to pass an online training course, which costs $99 and requires 20-30 hours work over 6 weeks. There is a standing scholarship for this course for facilitators in New England.

At the moment almost all meetings are online on the Zoom platform, using Zoom host accounts assigned by SMART Recovery USA.

Our existing volunteers will assist in finding a location for a meeting, and in publicizing the meeting. We will also help facilitate the first few meetings until you are comfortable facilitating on your own. Our other facilitators will be able to stand in for you from time to time so that your meeting still takes place.

Meeting participants are currently highly motivated individuals who seek out alternatives to traditional 12-step based programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

The international SMART Recovery web site is at http://smartrecovery.org, and the details on facilitator training are at http://www.smartrecovery.org/facldtrain/

The local SMART Recovery web site is http://www.smartrecoveryct.org/ and we're on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/SMARTRecoveryCT) and Meetup ( http://www.meetup.com/SMART-Recovery-Connecticut/)

We do have other, related, volunteer needs if facilitating a meeting is not for you.