Safety
People can care for their emotional and psychological safety throughout the meeting.
Community starter pack
You can begin a Survivors Anonymous meeting with care, structure and shared responsibility.
The published readings and practical plan support a calm, predictable peer-support room in person or online.
Begin with a planning conversation
A meeting can begin when the people, place and safety plan are ready.
Gather at least one other person who understands the peer-support purpose of the room. Review the readings and preparation checklist together, then decide whether you will meet in person or online.
Start at a size the facilitators can hold with care. A steady monthly or fortnightly rhythm can be easier to sustain than promising more than the group can safely provide.
Before announcing your first public meeting, send a contact request with the town, region or online format so facilitator questions have a monitored route and the meeting can be included in future directory planning.
- 01
Share facilitation
Begin with at least two people who can prepare together, share the practical roles and support one another after the meeting.
- 02
Choose an accessible setting
Use a private room or secure online link. Explain access, bathrooms, transport, camera choices and how someone can leave or re-enter.
- 03
Prepare the support plan
Keep current emergency, crisis, trauma and cultural support details where facilitators can reach them quickly.
- 04
Protect privacy
Collect the smallest amount of information needed, keep attendance private and leave recording, photography and screenshots out of the room.
- 05
Read everything aloud first
Facilitators should practise the preamble, newcomer welcome, opening and closing so the language feels calm and familiar.
- 06
Plan the ending
Allow time for grounding, practical support information and a brief facilitator check-in after everyone has left.
A 75-minute meeting
Use the same rhythm each time so people know what comes next.
Prepare the room
Set out the readings, check access and privacy, place support information where people can find it and confirm the facilitator, timekeeper and closing roles.
Welcome and arrive
Welcome people quietly, explain exits and facilities, invite everyone to settle in their own way and read the preamble.
Read the shared foundations
Read the opening, newcomer welcome and guiding values. Remind people that listening is a complete way to participate.
Introduce the reflection
Offer one step, theme or short passage. Keep the invitation clear and allow a quiet pause before sharing begins.
Share one at a time
Invite people to speak from personal experience about what it was like, what happened and what it is like now. The timekeeper protects equal access to the room.
Close and return to the present
Finish sharing on time, read the closing, offer a simple grounding practice and remind everyone where current support information is available.
What holds the room
Eight values guide participation and facilitation.
Choice
Each person chooses whether to speak, listen, pause, leave or return.
Respect
Every experience and perspective is received with dignity.
Open-mindedness
Stories and coping responses are met with curiosity, context and care.
Confidentiality
Participants protect the identities and stories shared in the room.
Shared experience
People speak from their own lives and share what helped them.
Compassion
The room makes space for care, patience and humanity.
Accountability
People take responsibility for their conduct and repair harm when it occurs.
Confidentiality is a shared practice. At the beginning of every meeting, ask participants to protect one another’s identities and stories. Facilitators should also explain how they will respond if someone is in immediate danger or a legal responsibility applies.
Published meeting readings
Read these words slowly and exactly as written.
Part V of Survivors Anonymous provides the shared beginning, newcomer welcome and grounded close for every meeting.
Survivors Anonymous Preamble
Survivors Anonymous is a peer-led recovery community for individuals who have experienced trauma, including domestic and family violence, abuse, and coercive control.
Our purpose is to create a space where survivors can come together to share their experience, strength, and hope, and to support one another in healing.
We recognise that trauma impacts the body, the mind, and the way we relate to ourselves and others. We honour the survival responses that once kept us safe, while also acknowledging that some of these patterns may no longer serve us.
In this space, we move away from shame and toward understanding. We do not compare experiences or measure pain. We do not judge, fix, or analyse one another. We do not require anyone to share more than they are ready to.
We believe that healing happens in connection. We value safety, choice, respect, and compassion. Each person is the expert of their own experience. Each person moves at their own pace. Each person is worthy of healing.
Opening Reading
Welcome to Survivors Anonymous. This is a space for survivors. A space where you are not required to explain or justify your experience. A space where you are not measured against anyone else. A space where you can simply be—as you are.
Here, we recognise that what you have been through has impacted you. Not because you are weak. But because you are human.
We honour the ways you survived. And we gently begin the process of understanding, healing, and reclaiming.
You are not alone here. You do not have to carry everything by yourself anymore.
Take what feels helpful. Leave what doesn’t. And move at your own pace.
Newcomer’s Welcome
If this is your first time here, welcome. It can take courage to step into something new—especially when you’ve been carrying so much on your own.
You don’t need to have the right words. You don’t need to share anything you’re not ready to. You don’t need to understand everything straight away. Just being here is enough.
You may feel unsure. You may feel overwhelmed. You may feel nothing at all. All of that is okay.
This is a space where you can go at your own pace. You are welcome to listen. To observe. To take things in slowly.
There is no expectation placed on you. Only an invitation: To be here. To begin, in whatever way feels right for you.
Closing Reading
As we come to the end of this space, we take a moment to acknowledge what has been shared. The courage it takes to speak. The strength it takes to listen. The presence it takes to simply be here.
Healing does not happen all at once. It happens in moments—like this one.
As you leave, carry with you what feels supportive. Leave behind what you are not ready to hold.
And remember: You are not alone. You are not broken. You are not beyond healing.
We walk this path together.
Facilitation in practice
The facilitator protects the process while each person keeps ownership of their story.
- Welcome silence and allow people to pass without explanation.
- Bring the group back to personal experience when advice, analysis or discussion begins.
- Interrupt harmful conduct calmly, name the relevant value and offer a clear next step.
- Pause the meeting when someone needs immediate safety support, with one facilitator remaining available to the group.
- Keep the meeting on time and finish with the full closing process, even when discussion feels unfinished.
- Check in with the other facilitator afterwards and record practical actions without recording personal stories.
Country, culture and identity
Cultural safety belongs in the planning of every room.
Begin in-person meetings with an Acknowledgement of the Traditional Custodians of the Country where the group gathers. Welcome the importance of culture, kinship, community and connection to Country in recovery, and allow people to name the support that feels culturally safe for them.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for free and confidential crisis support from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander crisis supporter, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
When urgent support is needed
Move from group sharing to the right service.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 000. If someone feels unable to stay safe, offer a private conversation with a facilitator and use the Australian support directory together.
Keep the pack with the meeting
Print one facilitator copy and review it before every meeting.
As the group grows, revisit the access plan, role sharing, safety contacts and the way participants can raise a concern. A predictable room is built through small, repeated acts of care.