About Us

Who are we?

We’re here for you

As a registered Health Promotion Charity funded by Queensland Health, we provide well-orchestrated, robust peer networks as platforms for people on similar paths to share support and resources. Our purpose has three parts: to connect you with a group that shares your experience, to assist existing support groups to grow stronger and help people start groups from scratch. We continue to evolve our focus and activities as your needs do.

In 1983, we began as the Australian Self Helping Health Care Association (ASHHCA). In October 1995, an incorporated ASHHCA became the Queensland Network of Self Help Organisations Inc (QNOSHO), and in 1998, we simplified our name to Self Help Queensland Inc (SHQ). Now, we go by Support Groups Queensland (SGQ).

Every Queenslander deserves an avenue to share their lived experience to help navigate challenging times. The group collective is a powerful way to bridge the isolation and loneliness of individual circumstances. We raise awareness of your group so you can reach the right people; help yourself and each other for improved health and wellbeing.

We help you find and sustain a support group for a positive and lasting life impact. Our practical assistance guides a broad spectrum of groups, from the experience of violence, genetic conditions, chronic disease and addiction to grief and loss, abuse, carer and parenting issues or mental health. As well as promoting and enabling self-care in Queensland, we’re loud advocates for meaningful policy.
We nurture and build the faculty of support groups to comfort, encourage and see members through life’s struggles, difficulties and significant health challenges. We also encourage you to find and connect members and effectively form, develop and sustain new support groups to meet health issues and community needs.

We fortify the agency and availability of support groups to promote shared experience as a valued part of healing and recovery. Self-help groups should be universally accessible, so we assist people with diverse health issues, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, different cultural and linguistic groups, and groups in rural and remote communities.

GET INVOLVED

SGQ is a registered Health Promotion Charity and we thank Queensland Health for the funding we have received since 1995 to help carry out our essential and important work.

 We welcome and acknowledge funding from a diverse stream of programs, including: 

The Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal
Investing in Queensland Women, Queensland Government
NDIS Information, Linkages and Capacity Building, Australian Government
Gambling Community Benefit Fund, Queensland Government
Brisbane City Council

ACNC Registered Charity
Queensland Government

Meet our team

Meet our board

Mission

We support people to find and sustain support groups to improve their health. We help groups across the broad spectrum of health, including genetic conditions, chronic disease, addiction, grief and loss, abuse, carer responsibilities and mental health.

Vision

All Queenslanders share their lived experiences of health challenges to help themselves and each other improve their health and wellbeing.

Goals

  1. Develop the capacity of support groups
  2. Encourage people to form and sustain new support groups
  3. Improve the access of all Queenslanders to support groups
  4. Ensure that sharing the lived experience of health challenges is valued
  5. Build the sustainability of Support Groups Queensland