Start A Women’s Group

The short answer: No.

The best candidates for this role have been members of an Avenue group for women. While that's not a criteria, a conversation with a Leader Coach is always the starting point to help determine your readiness to take on this role.

Yes!

Every leader had a first group. The Leader Coach helps to make the determination if you're ready for your first group.

If you have a heart for the women dealing with this, and/or if you've worked on issues in your own life, that's a great start.

The Healing Choice Leader Guide

Our Leader Guide gives you many tools to help you facilitate your meetings. It can feel intimidating in the beginning, but you'll find that you don't shoulder the weight of the group the whole time. Members are in the group to share, and they do! And you're not alone. Your Leader Coach is there every step of the way to help you facilitate your group well.

More questions?

If you have more questions, contact a Women's Leader Coach now by clicking on one of the 'Contact Leader Coach' buttons. You will connect by email, and then phone if you prefer.

Great question. If you're serious about creating a place of restoration for women, you'll take full advantage of the benefits we've created for leaders. These aren't bells and whistles that just sound good. They do good. We know from decades of experience. Here's what registering your group provides you, as the leader:

Benefits of Registration

1. A Coach for your group- Your coach will help you along the whole journey of the group. When you have a problem, you're not stuck in isolation, you call, text, and email, your Coach to talk about the situation.
2. A Coach for you- That same Coach is concerned about your welfare just as much as the members. Each Coach has been a group leader. Sometimes it's forgotten that leaders need help for themselves.
3. Online Directory- You can list your group in our online directory. This is a benefit for every type of group setting and host. People in need can find us and your group through a browser search. If you're an independent group, this is far more effective than trying to advertise your own group. For a church, it expands the ability to outreach your community.

It's never too soon to start!

Even if you are months away from actual start-up, it’s not too early to register your group. You can start to prepare now for running your group. At this stage, you’ll have questions. It’s a perfect time to talk with a Leader Coach. Purchase your Healing Choice Leader’s Guide and start reading to acquaint yourself with the details of starting and then facilitating your group.

We offer several meeting styles to accommodate everyone.

Local

A local group meets in person. Most local groups are created by churches for their congregation and the surrounding community to attend.

Mobile

The leader will use a video group or a phone group format for the meeting venue. AVENUE creates many Mobile groups to have a group available for everyone, no matter their geographic location.

The constant is we keep the groups small for true connection and confidentiality. The max is usually around 10 members per group.

Plan for at least 6 months.

The full course for the women’s group is 26 weeks. Having continuity in leadership and attendance is essential. Be certain you can make this commitment before starting a group. Once you have your group running, you may be able to identify other people within the group to act as a co-facilitator. and to carry out other roles. This process is fully explained in your Leader's Guide.

You'll need to get your church's approval to start a group, which they host. The first step would be to approach your women's small groups ministry leader. Explain your interest, and desire to facilitate the group. It would be helpful to show her our website pulled up on your phone, or have a printed page to bring with you.

If she says yes, you can offer to start the registration process and Coach training with us. Our Leader's Guide gives you directives to check with your church on matters of their protocol, because it supersedes our best practices.

If the church wants to gather more information, be sure to give them our web address.

Negative Response

If you receive a negative response, ask if you can use a room weekly, to host a group. If that is met negatively, that's not the end of the road. You can have an independent phone or online group. The Start A Group  registration form begins that process, too.

The process for an individual to start a group is the same way we proceed for an organization. You do the 3 things noted above this Q & A: Register, Get Your Guidebook, and Get Coached. When you register, the other two fall into place.

Leader coaching is free.

Leader Coaching does not cost the leader anything. It is very valuable help you provide a safe, healing group. It is required for our Avenue hosted Mobile groups, and churches expect the leader will be trained. Our Training and ongoing Coaching is worth $2,000, funded by Avenue.

Yes.

It is very valuable help you provide a safe, healing group. We require training for our Avenue hosted Mobile groups. Churches also expect the leader will be trained. Only trained leaders will have their groups posted in our Groups Directory. Our Coaches have years of experience running healthy Avenue groups.

We expect leaders to stay connected with the Coaches for the duration of your group, which will help you with your questions, determine readiness for moving forward, start up, staying on course, uncertainties, unexpected issues, and  personal concerns. It's for your benefit, for your needs and health as a leader and the overall heath of your group.

The Leader’s Guide is the blueprint for how groups are formed and function. Packed with practically every bit of information you will ever need to keep your group healthy. A leader should read through the Leader’s Guide for preparation, then follow the step-by-step guide to starting your group. The Leader's Guide is a reference tool for the duration of your group, to find answers to situations and questions as they arise.

That is perfectly fine!

If you are starting the group in a church, first find out it they can easily set up a separate email for Avenue. If that isn't your case, we suggest that you get a separate email account just for your group, using any free email service. We suggest using wording that identifies the group, rather than using your name, such as avenuewomen@yahoo.com, or avenuespringfieldgroup@gmail.com.

If you don’t want to use your own phone number, you can get a free phone number  through Google.

The fields that required to be filled are things you know or create. If you're undecided on an item, like your group name, you can choose something, but then edit it later. Many fields can be left blank until you've decided, such as start date. You will be able to edit your information yourself.

You're in control!

You have complete controI on the decision for who attends your group. Our Avenue Groups Directory does not publish the street address of the group location. It only provides the city and state.

An inquiry must contact you as a first step, so no one will show up at a meeting prior to you having a phone conversation/screening, if you choose.

If a church is hosting your group, we have suggestions for the same precautions in our Healing Choice Leader Guide. The Leader Guide gives you questions to ask to determine if your group is an appropriate for the inquirer.

You are in control!

You have complete controI over who attends your group. A woman interested in joining your group must contact you as a first step. You may have an email exchange or a phone conversation. When you've determined to accept their member request, you'll provide them the access code for your meeting.

It's unlikely.

While it’s not possible to know how many inquiries will go to a specific group, you have control over dealing with more inquiries than you can provide space for. If you have maxed out your group capacity, you can make a status change on your group listing to indicate that you are not able to take any new members until further notice.

Your group profile has fields for the day and time of your meetings, which minimizes receiving inquiries from people that it won't work for.