1,000+ people,
Three years.
Belonging & Becoming (B²) is a prospective longitudinal study examining what shapes the ability to live well — for people whose lives have been touched by substance use, mental health challenges, justice involvement, or social disconnection.
Why The Phoenix?
Two decades of community.
One million members.
Less is known about what helps people build and sustain meaningful lives long term, and even less about the role community plays in making that possible. The Phoenix was built with exactly those conditions in mind. It’s a place where people find connection, purpose, and opportunities to contribute, whatever brought them there.
For over 20 years, across over a million members, The Phoenix has been fostering those conditions. What actually happens to people within a community like this—how lives change, what helps, and what gets in the way—has never been studied at this scale, until now. That’s what B² sets out to do.
What the study measures
B² measures flourishing using the Secure Flourishing Index (SFI)—an internationally validated instrument spanning six domains of life. Using the SFI allows B² findings to be compared directly with other major flourishing studies worldwide, including the Global Flourishing Study. Where those studies examine flourishing at population level, B² focuses on people navigating active change—asking how it shifts over time and what drives it.
B² also tracks what shapes flourishing—including social connection, contribution and volunteerism, and the wider conditions people are navigating: their relationship to substance use and mental health challenges, involvement in the criminal legal system, and broader social and economic circumstances. The study also examines the economic and societal value of community-based support.
Study Structure
B² begins with The Phoenix, but it’s designed to grow.
This research starts with The Phoenix. Their scale, infrastructure, and 20 years of community-building make this study possible. But the questions asked through B² matter beyond any single organization. Through NewForm, The Phoenix works alongside 130+ recovery and wellness organizations across the US. The ambition is for this research to grow with them.
