Meetings

Starting an ASCA group

This outreach page provides information on how to start an ASCA support group for holding ASCA meetings.

Key information

  • You do not have to be a therapist or mental health professional.
  • All the meeting materials are freely available.
  • Free co-facilitator training is available from The Morris Center.
  • To be listed in the meetings list, some key information is required by The Morris Center.
  • Two stories about starting a group: Scott and Catherine.

General info

You do not have to be a professional therapist to start an ASCA support group. There are two types of groups:

  1. Community-based groups—formed by individuals who are survivors of child abuse. During these meetings, two co-facilitators follow a script that has been carefully designed to ensure a safe sharing environment.
  2. Provider-based groups —usually formed by mental health providers or organizations. These meetings may or may not be co-facilitated by survivors of child abuse.

The ASCA program has been employed successfully for many years by survivors who have started groups in cities located throughout the world.

Materials and Training

All of the materials needed to start an ASCA meeting are freely available on the materials page. In addition, The Morris Center offers free training to group co-facilitators—see the contact page for contact information. The materials page has the Survivor to Thriver Manual and the Co-facilitator Training Manual.

Listing a meeting

To get a meeting listed on the website, the following information is required by The Morris Center:

  1. State & city
  2. Status of meeting: current or proposed
  3. Fee per meeting, if any
  4. Private contact info – name, mailing address, telephone number and an e-mail address if available, to be maintained by The Morris Center privately.
  5. Public contact info – phone number, website, email address, etc. to be published.
  6. Meeting day & Time
  7. Meeting location or link if online

See the meeting list for examples. Please send the information to The Morris Center—see the contact page.

Meeting status

Once your meeting is listed, please check your meeting information every quarter to confirm its accuracy. Please let us know that the meeting is still taking place, how it’s doing—the number of people attending—and any changes or corrections.

Two stories of starting a group

As with many tasks, starting an ASCA group is a step-by-step process. Survivors who have started successful groups experience many accomplishments to celebrate in this rewarding endeavor.