Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap

This program is an effort to help minimize the possibility of relapse after someone has gone through a Rehab / Detox / Treatment program by matching them up with someone willing to take them to their first meeting or two within 24-48 hours of their return home. As you know, one of the more “slippery” places is the return home and getting to that first meeting before the disease can talk them out of it. This program will not only help them get to that meeting, but also feel comfortable in the meeting, since they did not arrive alone.

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The Program

What we expect from our volunteers

  1. When you have agreed to meet someone, please call the day they are to return home. It might take several calls before you make contact with them. If this is something you are comfortable with doing, feel free to leave your callback number. Continue to call each day until you make contact with the person. If no contact is made after one week, you may stop calling.

  2. Once contact is made, set up a time to take them to a meeting close to where they live. Arrange for a meeting place, either their home or neutral meeting place. Please allow enough time to pick them up and arrive early to the A.A. meeting so you can introduce them around and make them feel comfortable.

  3. If they did not feel comfortable at this meeting, then arrange for a second meeting. Ask them what type of meeting they would feel more comfortable in (men’s, women’s, speaker, book study, etc.) then try to take them to that type of meeting the second time.

  4. You should not take anyone else except the person who requested the contact (boyfriend, girlfriend, etc… ) this is for safety reasons. You should always take another A.A. member with you for these same reasons.

  5. You are to only take them to AA meetings, as this is a program of Alcoholics Anonymous Area 93. If they want to go to another fellowship, feel free to help them find those meetings around them.

Program Guidelines:

Please follow these when making your contact

  1. Men will be paired up with men. Women will be paired up with women. Again, just for safety reasons.

  2. You must always take another A.A. member with you, whenever doing a 12th Step call like this.

  3. Your commitment ends after the 2nd meeting is done. Feel free to continue to work with this person if you want.

  4. Please be respectful with the person. Try to make this first experience with the program a good one. Try to put the attraction into the program. Share with them your experience, strength, and hope about what it has done for you.

  5. A.A. does not provide housing, food, clothing, jobs, money, or any other social services. Please do not provide any of these things to the person you make contact with. We do not want to give them the impression that members do this.

  6. Try to answer their questions about the A.A. program. Let them know meeting etiquette.

  7. Guide them to A.A. Conference-approved literature (i.e., Big Book, Twelve and Twelve, and pamphlets-Questions & Answers About Sponsorship, Problems Other Than Alcohol, Is A.A. For You, A.A. Member Medication and Other Drugs, etc.). Maybe help them find a sponsor at the meeting.

Ready to Help?

Your information will be kept strictly confidential. You will be given the requesting person’s contact information.

If this sounds like some 12th Step work you would like to do and feel comfortable doing, then proceed with sign up.

Register Here