Ruth Hollman, Founder and Executive Director of SHARE!, will speak about "Self-Help Support Groups: Finding Community in Los Angeles" on July 10 at the 11:00am Sunday Service of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, 2936 West 8th Street. Free. (213) 389-1356. For map, go to http://www.uula.org.
Ruth Hollman, Founder and Executive Director of SHARE!, will speak about Self-Help Support Groups: Finding Community in Los Angeles on July 10 at the 11:00am Sunday Service of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, 2936 West 8th Street. Free. (213) 389-1356. For map, go to http://www.uula.org.
Founded in 1991, SHARE! - the Self-Help and Recovery Exchange - is an innovative center and clearinghouse that tracks and makes referrals to 10,000 free self-help groups throughout Los Angeles County. As the home to 70 weekly support group meetings, SHARE! also hosts a variety of groups, many of them peer-led, dealing with such life challenges as anger release, physical disability, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. For more information on SHARE! go to http://www.shareselfhelp.org/
Ruth Hollman has designed and helped establish such self-help groups as a court-approved diversion program for shoplifters and thieves and a support group using visual rather than text content to help developmentally disabled alcoholics stay sober. She has advised more than 100 self-help groups on solving problems within the group, improving structure and attendance. She has trained support group leaders, and developed and taught courses on starting new groups and transitioning from a professional-led self-help group to peer-led.
A cultural anthropologist with traditional fieldwork experiences in Australia and Thailand, Ms. Hollman has been studying and writing about self-help support groups in Los Angeles for 15 years. She is currently President of the National Network of Mutual Centers, the professional association for self-help clearinghouses in the US and Canada.