International Facilitator Forums

In 1990 when Dr Joe Gerstein, Founding President of SMART Recovery, started his first SMART meeting out of a basement in Memorial Hall at Harvard University he never planned to get so involved. Rather, he was only looking for a way to increase the availability of the program for his patients who wanted an alternative to 12 step programs.

Twenty years on and some 3,000 meetings later Joe reflected ‘After my 6th basement meeting I thought to myself this program is going to change the world. I didn’t mention that to anyone else because if I did, I would have been classed as crazy! But, at 6am this morning I met 17 Facilitators across multiple time zones who interrupted their days and nights to talk about how they are running SMART meetings in their countries!’

Our International Facilitator Forums are our way of supporting and acknowledging the energy and effort they put into their communities by providing SMART meetings.

SMART meetings are held in 27 countries around the globe. To find a SMART meeting running in a time zone and language that works for you visit our COVID-19 response page.