• The goals of this committee are to
    • provide help to treatment and bridging the gap program chairs and committees in Southern Illinois Area 21
    • encourage districts to
      • start treatment and bridging the gap programs and to form committees
      • have a treatment and bridging the gap form on their website
        • this helps clients coming out of treatment centers partner more effectively with districts to transition them more easily into Alcoholics Anonymous
    • to encourage districts and groups to check how accessible their meeting is and to make this information available in their meeting guides and websites
    • to come up with projects to help our area and districts more effectively coordinate and work together to carry the message
  • This committee has two major projects in progress for this year
    • 1. An area wide form has been created to help coordinate those in Alcoholics Anonymous willing to provide a ride to a particular meeting with those needing a ride to a particular meeting.
      • This information will be made available to each district’s treatment and bridging the gap chair or DCM (if no district and bridging the gap chair).
      • Why is this being done?
        • One of the major issues I’ve encountered when bringing meetings into a local treatment facility, is that clients are concerned about being able to find a ride to get to meetings. Many times they lack transportation or will be in a new area once out of treatment. Knowing how to connect them to those in Alcoholics Anonymous that would be willing to give them a ride to a particular meeting would remove a major barrier.
      • Link to form: Provide a ride to people coming out of treatment
    • 2. To have different groups from districts sponsor an AA Grapevine subscription to a local treatment facility.
      • This will carry the AA message into treatment facilities, potentially help those in treatment centers be able to connect to a story in AA Grapevine, and will also fiscally help the AA Grapevine.
      • We will be coordinating this at the area level through a document that is available online.
      • A list of treatment centers with addresses has been put together, but needs to be validated by each district.
        • List validated: District 6
        • Undergoing review by District: District 11
        • For all others, please contact area21treatment@gmail.com and I will send it.
  • Our next Treatment and Accessibilities meeting is April 28th, 2025 at 8p on zoom.

If you are involved in treatment and bridging the gap, or accessibilities, some helpful resources that you can download are provided below