Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises: The role of work engagement in support of people through the recovery process and in preventing relapse in drug and alcohol abuse.

BACKGROUND: This study, carried out in five Therapeutic Communities (TCs), aims to evaluate the relationship between social support and sense of community for people with pathological addictions and the personal and professional dimensions of hope, resilience, work engagement, future time perspective, and job performance. Support to the person is attained through social support at work by the supervisor and the person's sense of belonging to the community.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between social support, sense of community, hope, resilience, work engagement, future time perspective, and job performance.

METHODS: In order to verify the relations between those variables, structural equation models with observed variables (path analysis) were estimated using LISREL 8.80.

RESULTS: The results show a direct relationship between social support at work by the supervisor and hope, as well as between sense of community and resilience at work, while work engagement plays a mediating role between the two antecedents and the personal and professional variables investigated - hope, resilience, future time perspective and performance at work. Performance was measured through both people's self-perceptions and their supervisors' evaluations. A positive correlation exists between the two assessments.

CONCLUSIONS: The positive consequences of the research entail both theoretical and practical aspects.