Helping You Helps Me: A Guide for Self-Help Groups

Barbara Lokach was a social worker and freelance writer based in Toronto.

Helping You Helps Me: A Guide for Self-Help Groups by social worker Karen Hill is a basic primer on everything one needs to know about setting up and maintaining self-help groups.

This book is divided into three sections: “Self-Help — What Is It?,” “Getting Started,” and “Maintaining Momentum.” “Leadership, membership, recruitment, fund-raising, problem-solving and decision-making are among the more than twenty topics covered.” Brief bibliographies follow each topic.

The material presented is both relevant and broad in scope. For example, “A Climate Setting Checklist,” or the factors necessary for “Effective Group Meetings,” would assist self-helpers to assess their physical and emotional milieu.

Other than the fact that the style of writing is somewhat tedious — which may be a result of too much factual material introduced at once — this guide would be a good reference source for both new and experienced self-help groups.