The beginning of Sober Crowd
Recovery is stronger when people walk alongside one another in Sober Crowd.
Sober Crowd began as a mission to establish a community where nobody feels awkward because they are not drinking and where everyone feels supported in their individual sobriety journey.
​
The story behind Sober Crowd goes back to 2008, when our Founder, Luke, left rehabilitation in Boscombe and began the process of building a new life without alcohol.
​
Like many people in early sobriety, that meant more than simply not drinking. Some relationships, routines and habits had to change too. What became particularly clear during that time was just how important other people could be.
Boscombe Pier...symbolic for our Founder's start of recovery
Luke was fortunate to have people around him who had the time, patience and commitment to walk alongside him. Regular AA meetings, friendship with someone travelling a similar path, and those everyday moments of connection and encouragement all played their part. It wasn't one person or one thing that made the difference – it was having a network of support and knowing he didn't have to do it alone.
Â
As life moved on, so did the story. Luke married, and his wife, Jenny, made her own decision to live alcohol-free - not because she had experienced alcohol problems herself, but because it felt like a positive choice for her health and wellbeing, and because together they wanted to create an alcohol-free home.
​
Their reasons for not drinking are very different, but that difference has become an important part of the thinking behind Sober Crowd. There isn't just one story of sobriety, and there isn't just one reason to choose an alcohol-free life.
Â
What they share is an understanding of the value of living in an environment where alcohol doesn't have to be at the centre of things - and of having people around you who understand and support that choice.
Â
Over the years, another thing has become increasingly clear: not everyone has that kind of network. People can leave treatment, complete a recovery programme or simply decide that alcohol no longer has a place in their life, only to discover that building a fulfilling social life without it can sometimes feel surprisingly difficult.
​
That is where the idea for Sober Crowd came from.
Â
Sober Crowd isn't about one person's story or one particular route to sobriety. It has grown from lived experience, but its purpose is to create something much bigger than that: a community where people living alcohol-free can find connection, friendship, support and plenty of reasons to enjoy life.
​
A place where people are welcomed without judgement, where different experiences of sobriety are respected, and where nobody has to feel that they are doing alcohol-free life on their own.
'We didn't set out to create another 'organisation'.
We set out to create the kind of community we wished already existed.'
There are many who could have remained sober had they simply had people to connect with who understood what they were going through.
​
That is why Sober Crowd exists.