In 2024 our community attracted more than 300 individual members and had around 1,400 attendances a month... The key to this community is that we are entirely peer led.
Instead they empower peers to explore, and support and challenge each other, and we actively promote peer to peer feedback – it’ s not just a place to‘ dump’ your thoughts and move on. What started as an online programme is now very much an online community.
In 2024 our community attracted more than 300 individual members and had around 1,400 attendances a month – this has actually increased since lockdown, when we had a captive audience! The key to this community is that we are entirely peer led.
‘ Build on belief online is essential for me to be able to attend as I have a fivemonth-old baby. I’ m unable to get out the house as often as I’ d like and need somewhere where I can feel a part of a community, even if I can’ t attend in-person groups. Most in-person groups do not allow children or babies to be present. This is why it’ s important I can log onto BoB and get support for my recovery whilst still in the comfort of my own home with my baby.’
Service user feedback
Facilitators have lived experience and the community is shaped by service user feedback. No overintellectualising, no preaching from‘ experts’. What people ask for, we endeavour to give.
That has resulted in a wonderfully diverse range of activities. For example, on a Monday you could go to recovery coaching followed by Tai Chi( or a quiz, which is serious business here!) followed by‘ topic of the week’ and finish up with mindfulness meditation. On a Thursday you could have
SO WHO CAN JOIN?
Like everybody else we’ re reliant on external funding and currently that comes from subcontracts with treatment providers. We’ re very thankful to our key partners( local authorities, Change Grow Live, Turning Point, Via, CNWL) who currently pay for access
fun with the‘ wheel of mystery’, then the women’ s group, then‘ daily dilemmas’ and end with recovery support. There’ s something for everyone, but it’ s not for everyone.
Why wouldn’ t everyone benefit, I hear you cry. Because no recovery is the same and there is no single solution. Not everybody feels disconnected. Not everybody has accessibility problems. Not everybody struggles with their mental health. Not everybody works and needs out-of-hours support. So we’ re ideal for the socially isolated, whether that’ s through mental or physical health problems, people feeling disconnected or wanting to stay away from their current social networks, people trying to go to residential rehab, young parents and women who often struggle to get access to services, and anyone in between.
People don’ t need to be in treatment and we’ re not time limited – stay as long( or as short) as you’ d like! And what are our impacts? As well as the quotes above – the voices of real people being the most important metric – in our 2024 impact survey our online participants selfreported a 71 per cent reduction
‘ Since I’ ve been on these groups with my problems, listening to everyone else in group and getting support from them, I feel like I’ ve got a reason to get up in the morning. I’ ve never seen this time of day and I take a lot away from the groups. I’ ve now done six clean drug tests and my pick-ups have gone down to twice a week. I’ m starting to become proud of myself. Everyone is so supportive at BoB. It’ s inspirational to see the others doing well.’
Service user feedback
in feelings of isolation, and an improvement of 54 per cent in mental health.
So there we have it. The Build On Belief online community offers a diverse and balanced range of activities, some serious and some fun, every day of the week including weekends and bank holidays. Perfect for people looking for a community who‘ get it’, and support without judgement.
Ben Houghton is head of research and online services at Build on Belief
across London, Sussex, Kent and Reading. This means anybody from these areas whether they’ re in treatment or not can come along. We’ re regrettably unable to accept attendees from outside these areas without further financial support from the locale. For more information contact Dr Ben Houghton at benhoughton @ buildonbelief. org. uk
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