Some help only peers can give. A clinician can explain a craving; the person beside you in the circle has had one this week. Groups don’t replace treatment, and they aren’t therapy, but they do something treatment alone can’t: they put you among people who know the territory from inside.

The groups

Family support group — at the Bujjuko centre, on Family Support Programme Day: the first Saturday of every month, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. For families of people in treatment, in recovery, or refusing help; members trade hard-won practical knowledge and point each other to resources such as Al-Anon.

Alcoholics support group (AA meeting) — one peer meeting, Tuesday evenings at the Kyambogo centre, 5:00 pm, peer-led in the 12-step tradition and free to attend. Open to people recovering from alcohol and from other substances; the shape of recovery is similar enough that the room works for both.

Women’s support group — at the Kyambogo centre, women-led. A space where women can speak about what they often cannot raise in mixed rooms, including violence at home and the economic pressures that tangle with mental health. Currently paused — contact us to hear when it resumes.

Peer support groups — formed around shared situations as the need appears: people who have survived a suicide attempt, people living with anxiety or depression, new mothers, young people in the arts, mental-health advocates. If a group for your situation doesn’t exist, ask; ad-hoc groups begin exactly that way. Mentorship sessions run ad hoc, usually organised during school and university holidays.

Times can change; call +256 770 700944 to confirm a meeting and ask how to join.

What a meeting is like

Facilitated and unhurried. Nobody is made to speak; you may simply listen for as many meetings as you need. What is said in the room is treated by everyone in it as staying there, and facilitators hold the group to that.

Groups and treatment

You do not have to be a Safe Places client to join a group, and being in a group does not commit you to treatment. All groups are free to attend, whether or not you are a Safe Places client. Plenty of people start in the circle and only later, if at all, book an assessment. The door works in both directions: clients in treatment and aftercare are connected to the groups that fit them as part of their plan.