The purpose of the AA Bridge Program is to connect the patient AA member with Alcoholics Anonymous in their community upon their release. You are being asked to be that AA Bridge Volunteer. When a soon-to-be released patient contacts us, we match them to a Bridge volunteer in their community. We contact you, get the okay, and then send the patient’s application to you.

    Your job is simple. You contact the patient by mail (or by a visit where possible) and arrange to pick them up and take them to an AA meeting within 48 hours of their release. Your commitment is to take them to a minimum of three and a maximum of six meetings. During this time, you help them get acquainted, get phone numbers, and perhaps locate a sponsor or a home group. Please note, it is not intended that you become their sponsor, even temporarily. It is best if that word is not used in any way to describe your service. Bridge volunteers are “bridges” to the AA community. You introduce them to the others in recovery so that they have a broad healthy base and you are free and available to “bridge” again.

    Lastly, we request that Bridge Volunteers have an active relationship with their own sponsor and a minimum of one year sober and clean. If you are willing to be the hand of AA when a patient reaches out for help, just complete the attached “Bridge Volunteer’s Application” below, and click the submit button.  Your area committee chairperson, from either treatment or corrections will contact you.