BuddyPress.org

I don’t have a sidebar in buddypress. I’ve tried using different templates on the pages it creates, groups, members, activity etc, but no luck. I’ve tried adding widgets to sidebar but there is no sidebar. If I change to an official wp template there is a sidebar as expected but not in the theme we use. What is the process to add a sidebar in this instance. I’m using wp 5.0.1 – buddypress 4.1.0. I can’t supply a link as the site is in a staging area for now.
Thanks for any assistance.