Free Community Groups · Widnes · Runcorn · Halton
Second Story Recovery CIC Second Story Recovery CIC
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What we do, across Halton

Four ways we sit beside people in recovery.

Different rooms, different paces, different doors in — but one rule across all of it: nobody walks the next bit alone. Community groups, creative expression, outreach, and signposting — all free, all across Halton, all built on lived experience.

Jump to
12
Weekly groups across Halton
4
Community venues in Widnes & Runcorn
£0
Cost to walk in, forever
0
Referrals needed — just turn up
01 — Community Groups

A warm room, somewhere in Halton, every weekday.

Our community groups are the front door of Second Story. Free tea, comfortable sofas, and a peer-supporter who knows your name by your second visit. No referral, no agenda, no clipboard — drop in once, drop in for years.
Community group in Halton
Weekly · Open · Mixed · 90 minutes

The Drop-In

Groups running across Widnes and Runcorn throughout the week. The same faces show up; new ones are always welcomed. Tea, biscuits, two sofas, and a peer who'll greet you by name on visit two — that's the whole offer, and that's most of what people need.

  • No referral, no booking, no questions about what brought you in.
  • Held by someone with their own lived experience of recovery.
  • Open to anyone affected by addiction, mental health, or homelessness — and the people who love them.
See this week's groups →
Weekly · Halton

Family & Friends

For partners, parents and siblings carrying somebody else's recovery. We hold space for you too — separately, and gently.

See timetable for times & locations
Coming soon

Drama & Expression

A creative group using drama, storytelling and art to build confidence and share lived experience. No experience needed — just show up.

Learn more about Drama & Expression →
Launching soon

Outreach

We go to where people are — not the other way around. Our outreach service meets people across Halton on their own terms.

Learn more about Outreach →
Full timetable

All groups, days and locations — coming soon.

Our full weekly timetable across Widnes and Runcorn will be listed here shortly. In the meantime, message us on WhatsApp and we'll point you to the nearest group.

Ask us on Facebook
02 — Drama & Expression

Stories you couldn't say out loud, spoken on a stage.

Some things won't fit through the front door of a Tuesday meeting — they need a stage, a song, or a pen and a blank page. Drama & Expression is the wing of Second Story where members rewrite their own narratives, then perform them, share them, or simply say them out loud for the first time.
Drama and expression in Halton
Launching · Halton

The Drama Group

A creative group built around lived experience of addiction, mental health and recovery. Members develop confidence, share stories, and express themselves through drama — in a safe, supportive space. No experience needed. Just a willingness to show up.

No experience needed Free to attend Halton-based
Express your interest →
Coming soon
Be part of it from the start.

We're building our first drama group now and would love to hear from anyone who wants to get involved — as a performer, a writer, or just a curious face in the room.

Where
Halton
When
Timetable dropping soon
Cost
Free, always
Get in touch →
Confidence

Build your voice

Drama gives people a way to practise being heard — in a room that won't judge, with people who understand what it took to show up.

Storytelling

Tell your story

Lived experience is at the heart of everything — using drama and creative expression to turn personal journeys into something powerful and shared.

Community

Find your people

Like all Second Story spaces — no experience required, no audition, no shame. Just a room of people doing something brave together.

03 — Outreach

We don't wait for people to find us.

Most people in the deepest part of addiction will never walk into a recovery service on their own — and they shouldn't have to. Our outreach service takes the conversation to where people already are, across Halton.
Community outreach in Halton
Launching across Halton

Going to where people are.

Our outreach service is built on one idea: that the people who need support most are often the least able to seek it out. So we go to them — in community spaces, at partner venues, and in the places people already gather across Widnes and Runcorn.

  • Peer-led and trauma-informed at every contact point.
  • No pressure, no forms — just a conversation and a warm hand-off if wanted.
  • Connected into Halton's wider recovery and support network.
Launching across Halton

Going to where people are.

Our outreach service is built on one idea: that the people who need support most are often the least able to seek it out. So we go to them — in community spaces, at partner venues, and in the places people already gather across Widnes and Runcorn.

  • Peer-led and trauma-informed at every contact point.
  • No pressure, no forms — just a conversation and a warm hand-off if wanted.
  • Connected into Halton's wider recovery and support network.
Community

Meeting people where they are

Our outreach workers go to the community spaces, markets, food banks and gathering points where people already are — bringing the conversation to them, not the other way round.

Peer-led

A familiar kind of conversation

Every outreach contact is led by someone with their own lived experience. Not a clipboard and a leaflet — a person who's been there, who knows what it's like to be approached and not feel judged.

Connected

A warm hand into the next door

When someone's ready for more, we walk alongside them into the rest of Halton's recovery network — CGL, Mersey Care, housing, benefits support. We never just hand over a leaflet and walk away.

04 — Support & Signposting

We never hand a person off. We hand them over.

We're not a clinical service — but we know almost everyone who is, in Halton. When somebody in our rooms wants counselling, detox, housing, benefits help or family support, we sit beside them on the call, and we don't leave the conversation until they're sat across from the next right person.
How a hand-over actually goes
  1. 01

    A peer asks once.

    "Is there anything you'd like more help with this week?" — usually over the second cup of tea, never the first.

  2. 02

    We map your week.

    A short, plain-English picture of what's needed: GP, housing, debts, child arrangements, counselling — in any order.

  3. 03

    We make the call together.

    Phone on speaker. Peer in the room with you. We introduce you to a real human at the next service — by name.

  4. 04

    We come back to you.

    Back at the room, we'll ask how it went. If something dropped, we make the next call together too.

Halton's recovery network

The doors we know how to open.

We sit alongside the clinical and statutory services already in Halton — never in place of them. Below are the partners we route into most often.

Not sure where to start?

Walk into any group this week. We'll work it out together over a cup of tea.

Find a group near you →
Clinical
CGL Halton
Drug & alcohol treatment service
Clinical
Mersey Care NHS
Mental health & community teams
Housing
Halton Housing
Tenancy support & supported accommodation
Family
Adfam & Al-Anon
For partners, parents and siblings
Money & benefits
Halton CAB
Citizens Advice — debts, benefits, appeals
Halton Borough Council
Council Services
Housing, social care & community support
And more
Foodbanks, GP practices, mutual aid groups and local support services across Halton.
Ask us
If it's your first time

Most people sit by the door for the first ten minutes. That's allowed.

You don't have to introduce yourself, share anything, or even take your coat off. The kettle's on whether you stay five minutes or five hours.

£0
Everything we run is free, forever. No membership, no contribution expected.
No ID
No paperwork, no proof of address, no questions about referral routes.
Stay or go
If the room isn't right today, that's fine — we'll be here next week, too.
If you're reading this at 3am

You don't have to be ready. You just have to be here.

Message us, walk in, or read someone else's story until you're ready to tell yours. There is no wrong door at Second Story.

Right now
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This week
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If it's not for you
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