Congratulations on taking the initiative to form a support group for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (ASCA). Mostly likely, you have not been able to locate an existing group with a convenient meeting time and/or location. Perhaps, you know of a group other than ASCA but find its energy and style a mismatch for yours. Whatever the case, starting an ASCA group is an attainable goal and a rewarding experience.

The ASCA program has been employed for over a decade by a number of groups in cities throughout the world. ASCA is based on ~~hugely successful~~a twenty-one-step program for survivors of child abuse. You can find more material on the program itself in the Survivor to Thriver manual and the ASCA Co-Secretary / Co-Facilitator Training Manual. You can download or order these materials on the Morris Center website (www.ascasupport.org). If you have any questions, need more information, or just want some moral support, please don’t hesitate to call The Morris Center Outreach office at 415-830-2191. They would love to hear from you.

There are currently two different group models: community-based groups and provider based groups. The tips contained in this brochure are geared for community-based groups. Community based groups are formed by survivors of child abuse who, are also the group’s participants and co-facilitators. Provider based groups, on the other hand, are usually formed by mental health providers or organizations and may or may not be co-facilitated by survivors of child abuse.

Getting Started: The Three P’s

Starting a group may seem daunting at first, but, as with most tasks in life, you can achieve the goal by proceeding step by step, and celebrating each accomplishment along the way. There certainly are numerous approaches to starting an ASCA group. In this pamphlet, I we will try to present an assortment of tips. These tips may or may not be helpful to you. Feel free to apply those that seem to apply to your situation.

There are three primary ingredients to a support group. They are 1) Participants (survivors), 2) Place (meeting place), and 3) Procedure (format). It’s a simple recipe. The Morris Center has prepared the procedures (format) and supporting materials for you, so you can focus your efforts on locating other survivors and the meeting place. WeI’ll discuss which materials you’ll need - as well as offer tips - for the first meetings later in this pamphlet.

Participants

Support groups are all about people, and so, in the end, people are the most important ingredient to the group. For that reason, try to find a few people to serve as a core to the group’s formation. This group can assist with finding other interested parties, selecting a meeting place, and choosing an appropriate meeting time. If you act on your own, you may choose a place and time that does not work for others. It is hard to know these details without getting input from other people.

Of course, you may not be able to find others to help you form a group. Many people only want to commit to existing entities. However, I we know of at least one group that started purely from the efforts of one person who, not finding others to help establish the group, chose a meeting place and time and then advertised to attract members. So, don’t be discouraged!

Number of Participants

You may know some people who are interested in joining a support group for survivors of child abuse. Opinions differ on the minimum number of people you need for a meeting. There’s no iron-clad rule on the matter. The Morris Center believes that the ASCA meeting format works best with seven or more people. Some people are satisfied with even just two people in the room, but this is not the norm. Consider aiming to have at least five people at each meeting.

Smaller groups, five to nine people, allow for greater intimacy, enough time for each person to share, and the possibility of extending shares beyond five minutes. Many participants appreciate the opportunity for longer shares. However, smaller groups carry the additional risk of having too few people when everyone is not able to attend each meeting. Larger groups may be more comfortable for people who prefer not to speak at a meeting. Even though no person is ever required to speak at a meeting, people sometimes feel a subtle pressure to do so if there are not enough participants to fill the allotted time.

Your own unique circumstances will determine how big your meeting will be. You will just have to wait and see how many people are interested in the meeting and then navigate from there.

Advertising

If you do not know enough interested people to form a group, then you will want to find people. One good approach is to ask individuals you know. Naturally, you should ask people you trust. Some people do not understand these things and you might be better off not telling them. Please do not pressure yourself to ask people you do not trust, because there are plenty of other ways of finding participants.

Craig’s List

Advertising is an effective way of finding participants. A good place to start is Craig’s List, a popular classified ads web site. Craig’s List receives a huge amount of traffic, particularly from the kinds of people who join support groups. Here’s how you do it:

Get on the Internet, open your web browser, and type in the address <www.craigslist.org> (without the <> brackets). See Figure 1 below.

Figure 1

The default city is San Francisco. If you live in a different city, find it on the right side of the page and click it. For this example, we’ll try St. Louis. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

On the top left of the page, click on the link called “post to classifieds.” See Figure 3.

Figure 3

Click on “community.” See Figure 4.

Figure 4

Click on groups. See Figure 5.

Figure 5

You will see an entry screen. See Figure 6:

Figure 6

Fill in a title, description, and location. You can copy my description from the example above or compose a different one. You can leave the check box at the bottom (ok for others to contact) unchecked. It’s not a problem if you place a checkmark there – but you might receive email solicitations from businesses.

You can choose to list your actual meeting address or just give a general description. This depends a bit on your group format. If the group screens new participants, then you first would communicate with the applicant. Even if you do not screen applicants, you still might not want to list the address publicly. Some participants worry that a child abuse perpetrator or some other unwelcome person might try to attend a meeting and cause a disturbance. Some people do not worry about this at all and just go ahead and list the address. ~~I have never seen a visitor cause a problem.~~ The former approache requires a bit more work and may even deter some legitimate participants who would otherwise attend. As with everything in life, there are trade-offs.

In the above example, I we listed a group web site that I we established at geocities, which is Yahoo’s hosting service. ~~I’ll~~ We’ll show you how to set up an email address and web site on that service too. If you do not have a group email address, you can enter a different address. Alternatively, you can select “anonymize” at the bottom of the screen. Craig’s List will invent an address for you and post it in the ad. This way, your email address will not be viewable from the web. Any mail sent to the temporary address will be forwarded to you at the address you will specify after receiving your confirmation request from Craig’s.

If you have not yet selected a location or meeting time, then you might just write about your idea to form and group and ask for interested people to respond. You could write the following:

We are in the process of forming a support group for adult survivors of child abuse. Our goal is mutual support in a gentle and non-judgmental environment. We welcome survivors of any type of child abuse. If you are interested in helping to form the group or would just like to attend, please contact Scott at [email protected].

Note: I we realize that I we misspelled the word “non-judgemental” in my our Craig’s entry form in Figure 6. It should be non-judgmental. But I we aream allowing ~~myself~~ ourselves to make mistakes, even those in public forums like the web. You do not have to be perfect in your effort to start a support group. You will make lots of mistakes along the way. That’s fine.

After clicking “continue”, you will get a screen asking you to confirm your entries. Click “continue” if you are satisfied or “edit” if you want to change something. After clicking “continue” you will see a screen asking you to affirm the “Terms of Use.” Read the terms and click “Accept.” See Figure 7.

Figure 7

The final screen doesn’t require you to take any action now, but informs you that you will be receiving an email to which you must respond before your ad is posted.

An hour or so after your submission, you will receive an email from Craig’s. See Figure 8.

Figure 8

The email will contain a link. Click on the link. See Figure 9:

Figure 9

Click “publish” and you are in business. See Figure 10:

Figure 10

To view your ad, go to Craig’s List, and pick your city. In the search box on the top left, type in the subject of your ad (as you entered it) and click the arrow to the right of the search box. See Figure 11. Your ad should appear.

Figure 11

The ad will run for ten days. You can renew it every ten days if you like.

Posting Flyers

Another good means of advertising is posting flyers at universities, health clinics, community-center bulletin boards, and even coffee shops. Most places take down the flyers after a few weeks. So, you’ll have to get in the habit of making the postings as long as you are looking for new members. You might find this effort tedious, but you might also find it therapeutic. Each step towards establishing your support group is an affirmation of your initiative, independence, strength, and yearning to survive and thrive.

I We have created a sample flyer. You can download your own copy of the flyer from the Morris Center web site (www.ascasupport.org) or at the ASCA NYC website at <www.geocities.com/ascanyc>. You can also copy and paste from this document if you are reading via computer. The document is in Microsoft Word format. Obviously, you’ll have to customize it a bit for your group. Here’s the flyer:

Figure 12

ASCA: New York City

Support Group for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse

Join us for our weekly meetings. We give one another emotional support and an opportunity for expression of feelings, thoughts, memories, hopes, insights, and education on the subject of child abuse.

Held currently on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

See www.geocities.com/ascanyc for more information or Email Scott at [email protected]

Once your meetings get started, you can leave a few copies of the flyer on your literature table. Participants can assist in the advertising efforts by posting flyers at their schools and coffee shops. I We don’t~~wouldn’t~~ suggest pressuring anyone to help (most survivors had enough of that as children), but you can mention it during business meetings or the announcements portion of the meeting.

Mailings

You can also run a mail campaign by email or snail mail (snail mail is old fashioned mail with paper and envelopes). Who should you email? You can email anyone who might know of people who could use a support group. This can include the United Way, religious institutions, community centers, or even psychotherapy groups or individual counselors. The public library and web are great places to find addresses.

Here’s sample text for the letter:

Figure 13

Dear Community Services Director,

I am writing to tell you about the Adult Survivors of Child Abuse Program (ASCA), which was designed by the Morris Center (www.ascasupport.org) in San Francisco. ASCA is a support group for adult survivors of child abuse. This group may interest some of your staff and clients. You may have received inquiries from the public on the availability of such a group in our metropolitan area.

Our ASCA group meets once a week, currently Tuesday evenings in _________, for emotional and intellectual expression in a gentle and supportive environment. All participants are survivors of child abuse. There is no fee for attendance, only a suggested $10 contribution, which is applied towards rent for the meeting room, recovery literature, and contributions to The Morris Center — the non-profit organization that maintains our World Service Office.

I would be most appreciative if you could include our group with any listings of services used by your staff or in literature and web sites. While our city has no shortage of support groups in general, it suffers from a dearth of groups specifically for this purpose.

Please find attached a flyer (in the form of an MS Word document) that you can place on a public bulletin board.

Suggested blurb for your literature:

ASCA-NYC

Support group for adult survivors of child abuse. Meets Tuesday evenings 6:30 - 8:00 PM at the Children's Aid Society, Greenwich Village Center at 219 Sullivan Street (a block and a half south of Washington Square Park) in Manhattan. Suggested contribution $10. See www.geocities.com/ascanyc or Email [email protected] for more details.

Thank you for your kind assistance here and for your important work in general.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Of course, you need to adapt this sample with references to your particular group name, location, meeting time, and contact information. For the snail mail campaign, replace the word “attached” with “enclosed.” It’s also better to have a specific name in the salutation instead of the generic “Community Services Director.”

Please keep in mind, people may not welcome solicitations from mail order catalogs or credit card companies, but they often appreciate hearing about helpful resources. You might even receive phone calls (if you list your number) from people who ask for more information.

You might also find yourself speaking with someone who is checking you out for credibility. Do not be concerned or intimidated by that. The caller may represent a community organization that wants to exercise diligence on behalf of their clients. You do not have to impress them with a big show. Just talk a bit about your group, its format, and its goals. I Some group starters have found that mentioning my their association with the Morris Center is helpful. You can mention how~~I talk about~~ ~~how~~ the group closely follows the Morris Center’s meeting format. You canI emphasize that your group does not~~we are not a group where people receive~~ give psychoanalysis or counseling but provides~~. We provide~~ a safe place to express one’s feelings and thoughts in a supportive environment - without encountering analysis or cross-ttalk (please see the Welcome to ASCA Guide for more information on cross-talk).

Open Drop-in or Closed Meetings

As we mentioned earlier, you will need to decide whether to classify your meetings as “open drop-in” or “closed”. Closed meetings provide a more stable environment. This is both a strength and a weakness. Sometimes, people who are new to the meeting can add a different perspective and fresh ideas. Sometimes, new people can inhibit free expression by those who do not want to share before complete strangers. The founding members make many of these types of decisions. You can change the genre of your meeting as necessary. You may need to change whether a group is open or closed in order to attract members. However, excessive change can be harmful because most support group participants tend to want a fairly stable environment. Even positive changes can sometimes unsettle a group. I We will discuss group decision-making processes in the section titled Administration.

Internet

Email Address

There are numerous advantages to establishing an email address for your group including the following:

1. You can insure that inquiries from the public do not get mixed in with your other email.

2. You can better guarantee privacy in your correspondence in case some other person at home shares your regular email address.

3. You can more easily maintain your anonymity if you so desire.

4. You can pass on responsibility for the email account to another person in the group.

We all know by now a number of ways to establish an email address. You might find it helpful to establish an address at yahoo.com because you Yahoo will also allow you to form an online web page and group. Here’s how to set up an email account on Yahoo. In your web browser, type yahoo.com and when the page loads, click on Mail. See Figure 14

Figure 14

On the new web page, click Sign Up Now. See Figure 15.

Figure 15

On the new web page, click Sign Up For Yahoo Mail. See Figure 16.

Figure 16

Now fill out the information on the sign up page. See Figure 17.

Figure 17

From this point onward, just follow the instructions that Yahoo provides until you complete the creation of your account.

Once you set up your account, you can send and retrieve mail by going to my.yahoo.com and entering your id and password. See Figure 18 and Figure 19.

Figure 18

Figure 19

Creating a Web Page On Yahoo

Yahoo allows anyone to create a small web site on its servers. They use geocities.com, one of their subsidiaries for this purpose. To create a web site on geocities, do the following:

Go to geocities.com using your web browser and click on Sign Up. See Figure 20.

Figure 20

Enter the yahoo email address and password that you created earlier. See Figure 21.

Figure 21

Choose Health as your topic and click Continue. See Figure 22.

Figure 22

On the next web page, note your web address (should be geocities.com/your email address, eg geocities.com/ascanyc) and click Build Web Page. On the Build My Web Site page, click Yahoo Page Wizards. See Figure 23. From this point onwards, follow the instructions yahoo gives you.

Figure 23

Meeting Place

To create a meeting place, you really just need a room and chairs. However, there are some other considerations. It is best to find a meeting room with a safe environment – well lit, fairly public – so that participants do not fear for their physical safety. People who have been physically or sexually abused as children have a greater sensitivity to safety issues. One group tried to arrange meetings in a basement of a synagogue and realized that the windowless room, deep in the bowels of an old building, might appear unsafe to some people. For safety considerations, try to find a room with windows. The light from windows also cheers up the atmosphere. A room in good condition is optimal, although this is not always possible.

Another consideration in room selection is environmental control. By that I we mean that the place needs to be heated in the winter and cool in the summer (air-conditioning). However, air-conditioners can sometimes make a lot of noise! I Watch out for this.

Stability is another consideration. You want find a room where you can stay for the long haul. Switching meeting locations can be difficult for the group. The new location might not be convenient for some people. And if you have a drop-in meeting, communicating the change to all attendees can be cumbersome. So, try to find a stable situation with a reasonable landlord.

You might be puzzled by the choice of the word “landlord” for renting a room. You can try to locate a free room in the library, a hospital, or community center. For example, one of the San Francisco groups and both of the Chicago groups found free meeting spaces in their local hospitals. However, most organizations charge rent. Rental costs will vary. The lowest I rate you might find~~found~~ in New York City is $15 an hour. Some places want $100. A group organizer has to be a bit of a businessperson. Negotiate the best deal you can.

You can search the classified ads for rooms to rent, including those on Craig’s List, the yellow pages, or the web. You can also just ask around.

One important consideration in selecting a room is whether the lobby to the building has security, which requires people to show identification. Many meeting participants want to retain their anonymity throughout their association with the group. Having to show ID, may compromise that desire.

Administration

Community based ASCA support groups work democratically. Regular business meetings provide the space and opportunity for group participants to decide on issues such as how to develop new co-secretaries, how to raise funds, what types of reading materials to approve for Rotation C meetings, etc.

Administrative Goals

Before we discuss the administrative and decision-making process, I we should detail the purpose of administration. There are numerous tasks involved in running a group. Some of the salient tasks including the following:

People

Continuous advertising for new members if necessary

Responding to inquiries

Resolving interpersonal conflict

Communicating meeting place, time, and procedure changes

Place

Paying rent

Tidying the room

Ensuring climate control: heating/AC

Making sure there are a sufficient number of chairs for the meeting

Meeting

Communicating rotation schedule issues and topics

Collecting contributions

Providing Welcome to ASCA guides and other materials

Bringing materials to each meeting

Other

Record keeping/treasury

Roles

If you are just starting an ASCA group in your area, you (and your co-secretary) might need to handle all of these tasks. Like anything, such an approach has its advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is simplicity. However, relying on a single administrator depends on one person to commit to the work, which may require two hours a week, not including meeting time. A disadvantage of this approach is that other people may want to contribute to the group administration. You won’t find out if you don’t ask for volunteers.

Here is a matrix of some of the tasks according to roles. Note that in many meetings, the co-facilitators handle all of these tasks. We are just suggesting that this doesn’t have to be the case.

Roles	Tasks	Notes
Co-secretary or Co-facilitator	Reads script and intervenes when rules are broken.	Usually a “veteran” of ASCA meetings, who knows the program and understands the importance of safety in a support group.
Initiator/ Literature Person	Brings materials to each meeting. ~~Starts meeting by asking for volunteers for co-secretary duties.~~Sets up meeting materials on a table. Posts signs.	Can change at every meeting with one person committing to be Initiator/Literature Person at the next meeting.
Treasurer	Collects contributions. Keeps records on collection Pays rent Buys support group materials	Co-secretary usually handles this. But if someone attends regularly and is reliable, he or she might want to take on this role.
Door Monitor	Checks for late arrivals
Timekeeper	Times the shares during the meeting
Newcomer Greeter	Greets newcomers, explains the handout, and helps person feel welcome

Decision Making

Survivors of child abuse tend to be especially averse to any hint of tyrannical control in a meeting. So, I especially in community-based meetings, voting is usually a good way to make decisions. That way, each person has equal say in the decision-making process, You can vote on almost anything including topics for Rotation “C” meetings, whether to open windows on hot days, and length of shares.

Types of Decisions

Some decisions, such as whether or not to turn on a fan, are relevant only to individual meetings. Other types of decisions might impact more than just your own group. People in recovery might attend more than one ASCA support group – if they are available in their area. You might consider designating special times for policy decisions at business meetings. Most people cannot commit to attending every meeting. A participant might become disconcerted if she or he finds out ~~that~~that the group made a major decision during the one meeting they missed. One solution to this dilemma is to vote on policy matters only during the first meeting of each month. This way, people know they should attend those meetings if policy decisions are important to them.

Another recommendation is to ask group members tos bring all issues directly to the co-facilitator after the meeting. The co-facilitators then announce those items that the group needs to discuss at the business meeting. Presenting issues calmly and rationally is an important role of the co-secretary and co-facilitator.

Voting

The co-secretaries facilitate the voting process. For example, in the New York ASCA business meetings, any participant may raise an issue for discussion or suggest a vote. If another person seconds the motion, the co-secretary asks if anybody wants to discuss the issue before voting. Length of discussion depends on the availability of time and the productivity of the discussion. The co-secretary then asks for a show of hands from those who are “in favor”, “who oppose,” and “who abstain.” The majority wins.

Please note that these are all just administrative suggestions. Your group can adapt these suggestions or discard them altogether in favor of a different approach.

Other Tips

If possible, leave the phone list out after the meeting as you clean up. This will give people more time to copy down names and numbers.

Approach newcomers and make sure they have a copy of the Welcome to ASCA guide. Ask them if they have been to a support group before and, if not, explain to them the meeting flow (opening remarks, readings, main share, positive feedback, regular shares). Explain the concept of cross-talk. Help them to feel welcome. Tell them they do not have to give a share or read aloud. They can just say, “pass”.

Try to strike a balance between enforcement of rules and tolerance and patience. People need a little time to learn the group guidelines. For example, wI e think it is better to enforce the punctuality rule (by allowing late comers to enter the meeting at designated times only). However, a brand new participant might not see the sign on the door and just barge in the room. Such things happen now and then. Just try to recognize that participants usually break group rules because they do not understand or know about them yet. Please remember that support group administration is an art - not a science. Don’t expect things to run perfectly. You’ll learn many other tips over time.

Additional Help and Resources

Once you establish your local ASCA group, you will find out that there is a whole community to which you belong! Not only will you meet other survivors who support you in your recovery journey. You can get to know other ASCA group facilitators around the country – and world!

The Morris Center provides several resources to help you continue to learn how to run effective meetings. You can:

1. Attend one of The Morris Center’s ASCA Co-Secretary Training workshops in San Francisco

2. Order or download a copy of the ASCA Co-Facilitator Training Manual from the website www.ascasupport.org.

3. Join the ASCA Meeting Facilitators e-group hosted on the Yahoo website. This is a private e-group that only invited members (ASCA meeting co-secretaries around the world) can access. You can post questions and discuss ideas online with other co-secretaries. To find out more about how to subscribe to the group, e-mail [email protected] or [email protected].

4. Call The Morris Center Outreach Office in San Francisco at 415-830-2191

Stories by Starters

Following is one person’s account of his efforts to start a group. Maybe you will soon have a story that we can add to this section.

Scott’s Story

For all of my adult life I have had a notion that I would benefit from group therapy, but somehow, despite searching for a group and requesting the help of my therapists, I did not come across any for many years. When the 12-step movement became wildly popular some years ago, I found my way to 12-step support groups for people suffering from codependency and eating disorders. However, I felt somewhat out of place in these groups, as much as I enjoyed the group experience, since the subject matter and life experiences of the participants did not address the core of my struggle.

One night, an idea occurred to me that perhaps I needed a group that specialized in child abuse. Living in New York City, a center for psychotherapy, I thought that finding a support group for survivors of child abuse would be a breeze. But it wasn't. I searched the papers and the web. I called clinics and hospitals and all sorts of social service organizations. Eventually, I found a group for female survivors of sexual abuse and later on a group for male survivors. However, I sought to discuss a broader range of child abuse issues and simply could not find in Metropolitan New York City, home to nearly 20 million people, a support group for survivors of child abuse in general.

I was exasperated and frustrated. As I started to dwell in feelings of bitterness that the world was once again letting me down, another idea occurred to me: start your own group. How hard could it be, I wondered.

I figured I could use the 12-step format, the only one with which I was familiar. Other than that, I needed some people and a room. I really didn't know where to start for either task so I just took shots in the dark. I asked around. I tried the phone book and the Web, specifically Craig's List, in search of rooms for rent. I phoned Churches, Synagogues, and community centers. I was surprised at first that these public service organizations required rent, sometimes sizeable sums for an hour of room space. In thinking it over, however, I realized that maintaining a room for the public carries an expense. So I set about finding one in the thirty dollar range for an hour or so of time.

I went to Craig's List looking for people too. My advertisement asked for people who would be interested in helping to organize a group. In the end, I didn't find anybody interested in forming the group, but there were a few who said they would come to the first meeting once it was all organized. I could live with that. All of my life, I have had to take care of myself, and I could do it here too. What I needed from other people was for them to show up at the meetings and share.

Several people inquired as to the group format. I told them it would be run like a 12-step group, but I experienced trepidation that I was working with only adumbrations as to the actual workings of the meetings.

At some point in all of this organizing work, somebody (might have been two people actually, my wife and one of my correspondents) referred me to the Morris Center website. I could see instantly that I had stumbled on a storehouse of great material for my goal of starting a support group for survivors of child abuse for such is their specialty. The meeting format document was the best find of all since it scripted the entire meeting and helped allay my fears regarding the
running of meetings.

I also took instantly to the 21-step program in its design specifically for survivors of child abuse. As I mentioned earlier, the 12-step programs, as much as I appreciated them, never seemed ideally designed for my issues. For one thing, forgiveness, a staple of the 12-steps, is a much more complicated issue with trauma survivors. Also, while I believe in God, religious belief is a more complicated issue with many survivors of child abuse since religious abuse is a common form of child abuse. The 21 steps do not demand forgiveness or reliance on a higher power (not that they discourage them) and address instead matters more relevant to recovery from child abuse, such as recall of memories, reclaiming of one's life from dominant personalities, and building of personal strength.

With the ASCA material in my possession, I felt more confident in my organizing efforts. While still looking for a room, my wife came to the rescue again by finding something in Tribeca, a neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. It was a fairly well maintained basement room in a synagogue and the price, whatever we could afford at first and $25 per meeting after we established ourselves, seemed reasonable. With the room, the format, and a few interested parties in place, I settled on a meeting time that was agreeable to everyone and announced the first meeting a few weeks hence.

Naturally, I was excited and nervous on the day of the first meeting. But I felt enormous pride that I had taken an idea from germ to event. For much of my life, I had lived in a state of helplessness and hurt, and here I was taking charge of my emotional destiny. As I set up the room for the first meeting, I wondered who would show and what we would talk about. I was anxious to meet people with childhood experiences similar to mine. I sat down and waited. But nobody came! I waited an hour. I went upstairs to see if anybody was lost or locked out, but didn't find anybody. I couldn't believe it. All this work and nobody came. But I didn't despair. I believe that my proactivity boosted my faith in my self and the world.

I advertised some more and went to the second meeting. Again, nobody came. I waited an hour.

It occurred to me that my choice for a meeting place might be hurting my recruitment efforts. The building was not centrally located within Manhattan. Also, a basement room might be off-putting to some people for a variety of reasons. So, I researched some more and found a place at the Children's Aid Society in Greenwich Village. I visited the room and loved it. The neighborhood was much more popular and maintained. I notified my mailing list of the location change and tried again. This time, five people showed up, and I had my first support group meeting. It went surprisingly well, thanks in large part to the ASCA format document, which I followed closely.

Well, ASCA NYC has been holding meetings now for over eleven months We have some regulars, some people who came but once, and others who come periodically. If I had a dollar for each time I have been thanked profusely for starting the group the sum would more than cover my share of the rent. But equal to my joy in having given something to the community and to survivors of child abuse is the psychological benefit to me of having a forum for sharing my story and hearing those of others like me. Group support is a powerful device, in some ways a perfect antidote to a lonely childhood. Starting a group took a bit of work and patience (although not excessively so), but it has been undoubtedly worth it.

I We hope you found this pamphlet of tips useful! Again, congratulations on taking the initiative to start a group of your own! You are on a journey in which you do not have to travel alone any more. Welcome to ASCA!