Belonging & Becoming · Support the study

Fund the science of community.

Belonging & Becoming (B²) is a three-year longitudinal study following 1,300 new Phoenix members to understand how community-based support shapes recovery and flourishing. Your investment carries that work further, deeper, and back to the communities that make it possible.

Explore the pillars

Raised · 0% of $50,000 goal

One of the largest and longest studies of a recovery community ever conducted outside a clinical setting.

B² focuses on people impacted by substance use, mental health challenges, criminal legal system involvement, and social disconnection. We know community-based support can help. There is still very little long-term evidence on how it helps, for whom, and why. This study is built to change that.

1,300

new Phoenix members followed

3 years

of prospective, longitudinal data

10M

lives The Phoenix & NewForm aim to transform

Pillars of investment

Three ways your investment carries the study further.

Each pillar is part of the study’s design today. Investment determines how far and how deep it can go. Our team would love to talk through what fits your priorities.

Catalyze the Science Behind Transforming 10 Million Lives

The Belonging and Becoming Study (B2), the organization’s flagship prospective longitudinal study, launched in 2026. Following 1,300 new Phoenix members over three years, B2 is designed to become one of the largest and longest studies of a recovery community conducted outside a clinical setting.

But Phoenix is only the beginning. With investment, B2 can expand across the NewForm ecosystem, inviting partner organizations and their communities to participate. This will allow us to understand what different people need, at what points in their journeys, and how community-based support shapes recovery and flourishing long-term.

B2 is also designed to support rigorous economic analysis, generating urgently needed evidence about the value of community-based support. As The Phoenix and NewForm pursue an ambitious $150 million strategy to transform 10 million lives, this research will demonstrate not only what that investment makes possible for individuals, but what it could mean for communities, systems, and the United States as a whole.

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Phoenix members gathered together at a community event

Deepen the Science Where Evidence Is Needed Most

B2 is built to go deeper. Within the national study, targeted investments can fund dedicated lines of inquiry focused on populations the field has consistently underserved, including LGBTQ+ people, veterans, and people impacted by the criminal legal system.

Investment can also unlock specific areas of analysis that B2 is already designed to support, including economic value, mental health trajectories, social connection and loneliness, and the roles of trauma and adversity in shaping whether and how people flourish.

These are not additions to the study, but instead are embedded within its design and represent areas where evidence gaps are substantial and the stakes are high. Funders have an opportunity to advance distinctive, field-shaping research that can influence practice, policy, investment, and the future of community-based support.

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The six domains of the Secure Flourishing Index

Invest in the Infrastructure Behind Community-Powered Science

B2 is distinctive not only because of what it studies, but because of how it is being built: with the community. Through the Peer Researcher program, Phoenix and NewForm members help bring the study to life by supporting recruitment, sustaining participant engagement over three years, and helping ensure that findings are returned to the communities that make the research possible. Alongside them, the Lived Experience Advisory Group shapes how questions are asked, how findings are interpreted, and how the study remains grounded in what matters most to people and communities.

This model recognizes lived experience as an essential form of expertise. It also creates meaningful professional-development pathways, connecting members’ lived experience with research knowledge and transferable skills that can support future careers and strengthen communities.

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“Lived experience is an essential form of expertise.”

What B² is designed to achieve:

For individuals: A clearer picture of what helps people build meaningful lives, shared back with the communities who made the research possible so it can be applied where it matters most.
For community-based organizations: Evidence on what works, for whom, and how, informing how support is built, sustained and scaled across the sector.
For the field: New long-term evidence on the role of community-based support, with implications for research, practice, policy and investment, including its broader economic and societal value.

Community-powered science

Research built alongside the very community it serves.

Scientific advisors, the Lived Experience Advisory Group, and trained Peer Researchers have each helped shape B² and remain involved as the study unfolds across the United States.

Meet the team

Help us learn how community shapes the life you’re living.

Every gift to Belonging & Becoming supports three years of research built alongside the community it serves.

Or talk to our team about a pillar