Living Sober mutual aid platform

Living Sober is built around people sharing their experiences and supporting each other. It had already grown into an active community, with an existing website and audience built on WordPress.

As the platform evolved, there was a need to better support that community while maintaining what made it work. Many people rely on the service because other forms of support aren’t practical. They may be caring for others, living rurally, working irregular hours, or looking for something that feels less formal and more personal.

The platform needed to remain accessible, simple to use, and feel safe and supportive. At the same time, it needed to manage user data carefully and meet a high standard of privacy and security.

Preserving the existing community and its history was also important, ensuring people didn’t lose their contributions or sense of connection.

The Drug Foundation had already carried out user research and design work, providing clear direction on how the platform should evolve. Our role was to work with this material and translate it into a practical technical approach.

We focused on defining scope, assessing technical options, and shaping how the platform could be delivered and supported over time. This included identifying key features, planning delivery stages, and establishing a clear path forward.

A significant part of the work was planning how to migrate existing data from the WordPress platform while preserving the integrity of the community. We developed an approach that allowed content and user interactions to be carried across safely and accurately.

Throughout, the focus was on ensuring the solution was feasible, maintainable, and aligned with how the platform is used in practice.

The updated platform supports a more consistent and reliable experience for people using Living Sober, while maintaining the sense of community that already existed.

Core features such as the member feed have been improved to make it easier for people to participate, share experiences, and support each other. Additional features, including sobriety tracking and notifications, help strengthen engagement and connection.

The migration approach ensured that existing users and their contributions were preserved, maintaining continuity for the community.

Improvements to privacy, security, and platform stability provide a stronger foundation for ongoing use.

The platform is also now better positioned to evolve over time and support similar mutual aid communities in the future.