Home - SHARC | Self Help Addiction Resource Centre

Helping people to help themselves recover from addiction.

SHARC supports over 12,000 individuals and families annually and our programs and services operate locally, across Victoria, and increasingly, nationally. Peer support and lived experience are central to our work. We provide telephone and online support, education programs, counselling, peer support groups, residential recovery, consumer representation and workforce training. If you are looking for support for yourself, or for your family, friends or community; or to enhance your work with others – SHARC can help.

Protect Lived and Living Experience Leadership in Victoria's Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) System

Proposed changes to Victoria’s mental health legislation risk people’s rights when accessing mental health and AOD services and weakening lived and living experience leadership. Take action now to help protect the reforms people fought for.

Your organisation provides an incredible service, I did the training at Regen and have called your helpline on a number of occasions. Thanks for everything you are doing, especially during these difficult times.

SHARC is doing their best to make people like my son count - to de-stigmatise, and to show deep respect for those whose lives have been cut short by addiction. And that really helps me be an advocate – to know that I have SHARC to go to. It literally gives me something to get up for.

As proud parents of our son who is now 24 years old we send you our sincere appreciation for all the support and guidance given to him this past year of residence with SHARC.

Your organisation and programs have had a profound impact on us and our son. Through the education courses and support groups, we became more knowledgeable and confident in discussing his situation.

Now, after 15 months drug free, I’m a senior resident. I’m proud of who I’ve become. SHARC didn’t just help me stop using - it gave me a future worth living.

Week one, family members all come in very serious with no smiling. By week three, they are greeting each other like friends. They talk to each other without fear of judgement or ridicule of some of the things they have done in the road to helping their loved one. There are so many stories I could tell of the growth within the families throughout the course.

After a horrible time with his 18 year old son homeless, ice addicted, suicide attempts. Dad did the InFocus program, and then joined the Family support group for six months. Fast forward to now. The son is clean, home, working fulltime and totally engaged with the family.

We had tried for ages to get support to help us with issues with our son. SHARC and FDGH is the only place we have actually been able to get help. All of the FDGH programs have been really useful and the best way for me to describe it is that we are both now feeling really strengthened.

SHARC News

A statement from SHARC on the Entities Bill

26 February 2026

Celebrating the first cohort of the Learning Collaborative (TLC) graduates

21 January 2026

A statement from SHARC about the Victorian government’s apology to First Nations people

9 December 2025

SHARC Events

Lived and Living Experience at Heart (LLEAH)

Lived and Living Experience at Heart, or LLEAH, is an organisational support program for Victoria’s mental health and alcohol and other drug (AOD) sectors.

Volunteer with SHARC

Volunteering at SHARC is a wonderful way to make a difference. All our volunteers are treated with respect and gratitude for their contribution and are engaged in work that is safe, significant, meaningful and fulfilling.

CLEW

Join CLEW – a peer-led community supporting the mental health family carer lived experience workforce through connection, learning, and leadership opportunities.