Cooperation connects the alcoholic who still suffers with A.A. while each party keeps its own purpose and responsibility
This page explains the working process behind cooperation without affiliation. A.A. and an outside organization begin with a shared concern, identify what each can provide, use the appropriate A.A. service channel, arrange access and communication, and keep authority, records, finances, and public identity separate.
The result supports the mission of this section: A.A. can meet people in medicine, treatment, courts, workplaces, faith communities, and other fellowships without becoming part of those organizations or asking them to become part of A.A.
1. Begin with the shared purpose
A.A.W.S. says, Professionals who work with alcoholics share a common purpose with A.A.: to help the alcoholic stop drinking.
(Alcoholics Anonymous)
The relationship begins with the alcoholic who needs help, not with a partnership between institutions. The outside party brings its own professional, legal, pastoral, educational, or community responsibility; A.A. carries its message of recovery from alcoholism.
2. State exactly what A.A. contributes
A.A. can serve as a source of personal experience with alcoholism
. (If You Are a Professional)
A.A. contributes meetings, information about its program, members who share their experience, and contact with the Fellowship. It does not take over the outside party’s casework, treatment, supervision, employment, pastoral care, or other professional responsibilities.
3. Keep outside needs with the people qualified to meet them
A.A.W.S. notes that Some may also require professional counseling or medical treatment.
(A.A. can support professionals)
A referral to A.A. does not transfer medical, psychiatric, legal, employment, housing, or social-service responsibility to a group or sponsor. Cooperation works when each need remains with the person or organization responsible for that work.
4. Use the A.A. service channel that fits the request
C.P.C. committees focus on Establishing better communication with professionals working with alcoholics
and Finding simple, effective ways of cooperating without affiliating.
(Cooperation with the Professional Community)
A local C.P.C. committee can answer professional questions or arrange a presentation. Treatment, Corrections, Public Information, Bridging the Gap, intergroup, central office, district, or area service may handle other requests. Using the established local channel brings the relevant A.A. experience to the relationship and keeps one individual from speaking for all of A.A.
5. Establish contact and agree on practical access
For treatment settings, A.A. guidance says the first step is to establish contact with administrators
and discuss cooperation within our Twelve Traditions.
(A.A. Guidelines: Treatment Committees)
The practical discussion identifies the correct contacts, permission to enter the setting, whether information or meetings are requested, who supplies schedules and literature, and how people can reach local A.A. after discharge or referral. These arrangements provide access without giving the facility authority over A.A.
6. Make referrals in both directions
A.A. members refer alcoholics and their families to competent professionals and agencies that provide such service.
(How A.A. Members Cooperate with Professionals)
Professionals and agencies can tell people how to find A.A.; A.A. members can direct needs outside the A.A. program to competent resources. A referral supplies a connection. It does not make the receiving party an A.A. affiliate, and it does not shift the other party’s responsibilities to A.A.
7. Protect singleness of purpose, anonymity, and meeting integrity
A.A. says local committees discuss how to cooperate while maintaining A.A.’s singleness of purpose, Tradition of Anonymity and meeting integrity.
Its guidance concludes, Communication is the key.
(Alcoholics Anonymous as a Resource for Drug and Alcohol Court Professionals)
The referring party can explain its own requirements, and the A.A. group retains its group conscience and meeting practices. The arrangement must not turn a meeting into treatment, court reporting, professional monitoring, or a source of personal information about members.
8. Keep governance, services, staff, records, and identity separate
A.A.W.S. describes fellowships as cooperating but not affiliating with the other
, while each retains separate committees, staffs, and facilities.
(A.A. Guidelines on Relationship Between A.A. and Al-Anon)
The same operating boundary clarifies cooperation with any outside organization. Each party keeps its own name, decisions, service structure, mailing lists, records, staff, facilities, and communications. Shared access or a shared event does not create shared governance.
9. Review the relationship before it continues
Tradition Six warns against lending the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise
, while Tradition Seven calls for A.A. to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
(The Twelve Traditions)
Before continuing, ask whether the arrangement makes the outside party look A.A.-sponsored, gives it control over an A.A. group, mixes finances or records, permits it to speak for A.A., or confuses professional services with A.A. recovery. If it does, the terms need to be separated and clarified.