Family and Friends
Stigma free
Online Meetings Calendar
Families and friends are not powerless over addiction
Far from it, whilst we can't do our loved one's recovery for them, families and friends can significantly unbalance their unhealthy relationship with their drug of choice. We can connect, support each other and share, evidenced based, modern recovery tools.
Everyone's recovery journey starts with a single step in a new direction. So our online meeting calendar page is a good next step, click on a link and listen in to a few meetings, to see if any help.
2025 Meeting start time madness period
USA/Canada Daylight savings begins 9th March, they "spring" forward one hour, this happens in the UK on the 30th March. As Australia is in the southern hemisphere, their clocks "fall" back one hour on the 6th of April.
Link Colours
The GREEN links take you staight into the meetings, the BLUE ones require some form of registration first.
Meeting Background
Even many modern recovery meetings still take the stigmatising 1930s stance that families are part of the problem not the solution.
For example, when we did our family facilitator training for SMART Recovery we were required to do the full
recovery facilitator training first. The opposite doesn't happen, so many recovery facilitators don't give
families the same warm welcome as we do to people seeking recovery in our meetings.
The dark green background indicates recovery meetings that families can check out for their loved ones and also learn more
about recovery themselves.
Please let us know of any meetings we have missed, or if any times or links change. Our (Dave and Tina) email address is: alternatives@gmx.com
To check the current time in Australia and the USA. I use these handy sites TIME.IS or TIME ZONE CONVERTER. Alternatively it is easy to add extra time zones to your SMART Phone clock.
Current UK time (the time column is UK time)
09.30
to
11.30
Australia Be SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Renee
( 18.30-20.00 Sydney)
(Siblings might find this group is a good fit)
14.00
to
15.00
USA Maine SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Kristen
07.00
to
08.30
Australia Be SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Mark (WRAD)
( 18.00-19.30 Sydney)
(Fortnightly, click the link to find next date.)
16.00
to
17.00
Open Door Recovery
A Harm Reduction Works meeting
A great family friendly open recovery meeting that supports harm reduction.
(11.00-12.00 New York)
18.00
to
19.30
Thrive! Faith-based CRAFT+ITC group
Facilitated by Pam
(12.00-13.30 USA CST)
18.00
to
19.30
Alternat+ves Parents Meeting
(13.00-14.30 New York)
Facilitated by Dave and Tina
Add to calendar
18.00
to
19.30
USA Centreville SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by John
(13.00-14.30 New York)
23.30
to
01.30
Drug Crisis in Our Backyard
Passcode 456745!
(18.30-20.00 New York)
10.00
to
12.00
Breakthrough Australia
Really good training for families to understand substance dependence.
Facilitated by Glenn, Nikki and Anna
(19.00-20.00 Sydney)
10.00
to
12.00
Ashburton Support Group Australia
1st Wednesdays of the month Topic based family discussion.
Email Jan for the link
(19.00-20.0 Sydney)
18.00
to
19.00
SMART Recovery UK
A family friendly 4-point recovery meeting.
Facilitated by Celia
(13.00-14.00 New York)
10.00
to
12.00
Australia Be SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Jazz
(19.00-20.30 Sydney)
(If you have a parent struggling with AOD is might also be good fit)
16.00
to
17.30
USA (Russia Language) SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Timofey S
(11.00-12.30 New York)
17.00
to
18.00
SMART Recovery UK
Facilitated by Tina
(12.00-13.00 New York)
18.00
to
19.00
SMART Recovery UK
Facilitated by Steve
A great family friendly open recovery meeting that supports harm reduction.
(13.00-14.00 New York)
12.00
to
13.30
LIFE - CRAFT Mutual Aid Group
Facilitated by Maggie
Our first introduction to CRAFT, back in 2016, was at Maggie's F2F meetings.
Thank you for showing us how to support our son and be a reason for him to recover.
(07.00-08.30 New York)
(21.00-22.30 Australian EST)
18.00
to
19.00
Harm Reduction Works WEconnect - Hosted Meeting
Facilitated by Meghan
A great family friendly open recovery meeting. Focused on harm reduction.
(13.00-14.00 New York)
18.00
to
19.00
USA (New York) SMART F and F Meeting
Facilitated by Denise and Sue
(13.00-14.00 New York)
14.00
to
15.00
USA REBT Conversation Hour
Dr Walter J. Matweychuk Ph.D.
(Email him for the Zoom link)
(09.00-10.00 New York)
15.30
to
17.00
SMART Recovery for Family & Friends NYC
Facilitated by Anne and Suzanne D
Facebook page
(8.30-09.00 New York)
16.00
to
17.30
SMART Recovery for Family & Friends National
Facilitated by Anne and Kathy
(9.00-10.30 New York)
16.00
to
17.30
Thrive! ITC group
Facilitated by Pam
(10.00-11.30 USA CST)
20.00
to
21.00
For families curious about LifeRing Secular Recovery
Convened by Mary Beth O'Connor
(12.00-13.00 USA Pacific Time)
15.00
to
16.30
USA SMART F and F meeting 2nd and 4th Sundays
Multiple facilitators
(10.00-11.30 New York)
18.00
to
19.30
Alternat+ves ITC Parents Meeting
(13.00-14.30 New York)
Facilitated by Dave and Tina
Add to calendar
20.00
to
21.00
LifeRing Friends & Family meeting
Convened by Rafal
(12.00-13.00 USA Pacific Time)
Other timezone family and friends online meetings
ITC F and F meetings
The Center for Motivation and Change (CMC) now has a directory of Invitation To Change (ITC) Family support groups.
We are really appreciate their support - both of our meetings are on this list.
ITC Support Group Directory
Helping Families Help
A list of free and paid membership meetings, using CRAFT and ITC.
SMART Family and Friends meeting finders
Our F&Fs meetings are only featured on SMART Recovery Global meeting finder, even though we are UK based and also get attendees from USA and Europe?
SMART Recovery Global F&F meetings
SMART Recovery USA online F&F meetings
Unfortunately SMART Recovery UK and Australia are unable to retain family and friends facilitators, so we have seen no growth since we started our meetings in 2016.
SMART Recovery Australia F&F meetings
SMART Recovery UK online F&F meetings
(The "Filters" button allows us to find, for example, local in-person meetings and select the search radius. "------" means any)
Please note SMART Recovery, only allow one weeks worth of meetings to be displayed.
So if your searching for a meeting that is fortnightly, no one will be able to find it for 26 weeks of the year!