Bridging the GapProgramArea 87

For more information,you can contact Lévis H., alternate coordinator of the

Bridging the Gap Programat (514) 742-9562 (cellular)

or Regional Service Office of the 87 Area at (514) 374-3688or by email at

treatmentfacilities@aa87.orgWEB Site

http://aa-quebec.org/region87/centresdetraitement/accueil_en.htm

AA

Treatment Facilities Committee

Area 87BRIDGING THE GAP PROGRAM

Table of contents

1) Introduction2) How Bridging the Gap works3) Dear résident4) Dear member5) Responsibilities of the temporary contact6) Checklist of the temporary contact

1) Introduction

This program is intended for residents who are in a treatment facility and about to be released. Upon the supervision of a coordinator or a Bridging the Gap Program’s officer, groups of voluntary AA members are set up. Each said member will be paired to another resident member who requests to be accompanied by an AA member who will act as an AA intermediary between the treatment facility and the outside world upon his or her release. The first contact can be made before the release.

This is not a sponsoring program, but a short term accompaniment. It is intended to help the outgoing member to get more familiar with the outside world, to be informed about meetings’ places, telephone numbers to know, etc. The first 72 hours following release from a treatment facility are crucial, hence the importance of such a program to insure continuity in rehabilitation from alcohol and avoid isolation once the resident is out.

The temporary contact is a sort of guide for a couple of weeks. Once the outgoing member is back and grounded in his/her community, has chosen a home group, a sponsor, etc., the temporary contact’s task is over and he/she is ready to be paired with another outgoing member.

2) How the Program works

1. Each outgoing resident from a treatment facility can benefit from Bridging the Gap.

2. The resident completes the Bridging the Gap’s request form and forwards it to the Regional Service Office of Area 87 which, in turn, forwards it to the coordinator of the program Bridging the Gap who will find him/her a temporary sponsor.

3. The coordinator of the Program forwards the following information about the person to accompany to the concerned DCM or the concerned coordinator of the District’s Treatment Facilities sub-committee : release date and time, address, telephone number, as well as other appropriate information in order to find a temporary sponsor.

4. An AA member can become a temporary sponsor by completing a form he/she can get from his/her home group’s GSR or the Area’s Regional Service Office. He/she forwards the completed form to his/her home group’s GSR who will forward it to the DCM who will keep it for a future accompaniment.

5. After a Bridging the Gap’s request is made to the concerned DCM or concerned coordinator of the District’s Treatment Facilities sub-committee, the chosen temporary sponsor, after receiving all the necessary information, will call the concerned outgoing resident to schedule the date and hour they will attend an AA meeting.

a) If a temporary sponsor doesn’t want to communicate his/her personal address, he/she can use the Area’s Regional Service Office address.

b) If a temporary sponsor doesn’t communicate with the outgoing resident, the coordinator of the program has to be noticed.

6. The temporary sponsor will meet the requester at a commonly agreed time and place and will accompany him/her to his/her first AA meetings.

7. After six meetings, the temporary sponsor shall stop the temporary sponsoring, let the sponsoree go and trust his/her Higher Power and, thus, become available again for another accompaniment.

8. When an accompaniment is over, the temporary sponsor notices the concerned DCM, the coordinator of the Program or the coordinator of the Area’s Treatment Facilities committee.

3) Dear resident

In AA, we have a transition program called Bridging the Gap. This means you can request, before your release, to be matched with another AA member upon your return in the community. This AA member will accompany or greet you to six meetings, introduce you to other members and help you get the necessary infomation to be confortable in AA. During this time, you will learn what you have to know about sponsorship, home groups, the Twelve Steps and service. Your contact is only a temporary guide who won’t follow or try to control you, no more that he/she has to provide for food, lodging, clothing, money or anything else. You have to remember the five basic suggestions for sobriety that AA mem-bers share: Don’t drink, Attend meetings, Read the Big Book, Talk to your sponsor and Work the Steps.

Experience has shown that attending an AA meeting outside as soon as you’re released is one of the most efficient ways towards a sober transition in the outside world. A lot of us have known this kind of situation and, because we met and experienced AA, we know what AA can do for you as it did for us and a lot of other AA members.

Please, fill the request form residents and forward it to the address indicated on the form. Keep the rest of the flyer as reference. If you can, do your request a couple of weeks before your release or as soon as you know your release date. The coordinator or a Program’s officer will send the information to the DCM of the district where yoiu live to match you with an AA member of your home town or neighborhood. This person will get in touch with you by phone or otherwise and will provide you the necessary information once you’re out.

4) Dear member

Bridging the Gap is intended to be a living link between an AA resident with AA members in his/her community upon his/her release and you are invited to join this program. When an resident, on the brink of his/her release, contacts us, we match this person with a community’s AA member. We call you, register your agreement and send the requester information about you. Your task is simple. You get in touch with the AA resident, fix an appointment and you bring him/her to an AA meeting during the next 48 hours following his/her release.

You commit yourself to bring this new member to a minimum of 3 meetings and a maximum of 6 meetings. While you attend meetings with this person, you help him/her to get information, other members’ telephone numbers and, perhaps, find a sponsor or a home group. Please, note that you’re not expected to become the sponsor of this person, even temporarily and you would be ill-advised to mention sponsorship as part of your services. Contact persons are bridges to AA.. You introduce this new member to AA winners to steer him/her in the right direction and provide the necessary support and when that task is completed you are available for a new pairing. We wish that contact persons maintain an active relationship with their own sponsors and request them to be sober for a 2 years at least.

If you’re willing to be the hand of AA when an resident reach out for help, fill the request form as contact person and for-ward it to the address shown on the form and keep the rest of the flyer as reference.

5) Responsibilities of the contact person

1. Get in touch with the resident by phone or otherwise as soon as possible following the pairing. Stay in touch with the new resident whenever possible until his/her release.

2. Bring the resident to an AA meeting in the next 24 to 48 hours following his/her release.

3. You should consider the first meeting as Twelve Step work and bring someone else with you. Behave the same way you would with a newcomer, even though the new member has already attended AA meetings in the treat ment facility.

4. Review Bridging the Gap (BTG) with the ex-resident to avoid any misunderstandings about BTG.

5. Remind the new member, when necessary, that you are a temporary bridge to his/her new AA community.

6. Remember that your work is over after attending six meetings or as soon as a permanent sponsor is committed. Do your best to foster that kind of relationships.

7. Make sure the new member gets a meetings’ list, necessary telephone numbers, literature and his/her own Big Book.

8. Encourage the new member to attend meetings as much as possible, find a home group and (very important) get a sponsor as soon as possible (not you). Even a temporary sponsor available NOW is preferable.

9. Share your experience, your strength and your hope with the new member just as you would with any other AA member of your community.

10. When your work is done, report to the Program’s officer about the results of your action. Let us know what worked and what did not work.

11. Most important, stay in touch with your sponsor, your Higher Power and keep implementing the AA program.

6) Checklist of the temporary contact

1. DO NOT forget the importance for the ex-resident to attend a meeting as soon as possible after his/her release.

2. DO NOT feel responsible for the attitude or the behavior of the new member during a meeting or outside.

3. DO NOT do any favor to the new AA member, e. g.: a) lend money or something valuable; b) become his/her driver; c) do not forget that our primary goal is to carry the message.

4. DO NOT become the sponsor of the ex-resident, even temporarily. It is very important that the new member meet as many AA winners as possible and create relationships with other AA members by himself/herself.

5. DO NOT let any emotional or sentimental relationship develop between you two.

6. DO NOT attend more than six meetings with the new member.

7. DO NOT act as a reporter or a go-between the member and the legal system. Remember the Twelfth Tradition.

8. DO NOT forget to take care of yourself or do not neglect your own recovery program in committing time and energy to others.

WHAT IS BRIDGING THE GAP ?First, the expression Bridging the Gap has been used for many years in the Treatment Facilities Workbook (M-40H) and the A.A. Guidelines for Treatment Facilities Committees (MG-14). Many AA members were inspired by this concept, adopted it and tried to implement it. Beginnings were modest and, after a lot of work and commitment, some mem-bers decided to share this initiative throughout AA, hence the name World Wide Bridge the Gap/Temporary Contact Program or WWBTG/TCP

Note : At the time of the AA census in 1991, there were 46 WWBTG points of contact.

So, what is it?

Simply said, Bridging the Gap is an AA initiative to reach the suffering alcoholic who is isolated (treated) and to bring him/her to AA. Several Areas include hospitals, jails, halfway houses, detox clinics in their efforts to reach the suffering alco-holic before he/she gets cornered one more time against the backdoor of isolation, after his/her release, instead of walk-ing the front door of AA.

How do persons concerned get to know the Program?

Information about AA meetings is offered to inmates/residents before their release date. This is an excellent opportunity to show and tell what AA is and mostly WHAT AA IS NOT. This is our responsibility, not the responsibility of Treatment facilities to inform interested residents about AA ! After viewing the video titled Hope: Alcoholics Anonymous, hearing presentations about the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions, the different types of meetings and Conference-approved literature, there is also a presentation about Bridging the Gap and if someone is interested, he/she can get a BTG request form and fill it out.

How do requesters and contact persons get in touch?

The BTG request form filled by an resident is reviewed by the DCM, a member of the BTG sub-committee of the district or the Area and the requester is paired, if possible, with an AA member according to the following criteria: sex, age and postal code (place of residence). The contact person is then invited to get in touch with the requester. Nobody, under any consideration, except the contact person, can give his or her personal phone number or any personal information, in order to protect the anonymity of AA members.

Why this sudden urge to promote Bridging the Gap ?

Professionals active in the treatment of alcoholism estimate that in the near future a lot of treatment facilities will close and that those left will function on a very reduced scale and stick to the detox phase. What’s going to happen to alcohol-ics ? During the detox or treatment phase, the suffering alcoholic is someone who doesn’t drink but hasn’t adopted any new way of living (AA program) yet. This is where AA’s responsibility is concerned and where we have to step in. This is a challenge, can we address it ?

Why, in the last analysis, should I join in ?

It’s simple: read or re-read your Big Book. Our practical experience shows that nothing can keep us sober better than intensive work to help other alcoholics. This kind of reaching out succeeds when everything else has not given satisfying results!!! Elsewhere in the Big Book, you can read how easily you can help other alcoholics by getting in touch with physi-cians, clergy members, hospitals, etc.

In the Big Book again, you will find THE solution to get and remain sober: “ Our own lives, as former drinkers, depend upon our constant desire to help others and find ways to fulfill their needs ”.

For more information, you can get in touch with Area 87 officers, officers of the Treatment Facilities committees of Area 87, at : (514) 374-3688 or by email : treatmentfacilities@aa-quebec.org or even with the AA General Service Office in New York. Our web site at: http://aa-quebec.org/area87/treatmentfacilities

Suggestions for meetings about Bridging the Gap

1. Let everyone introduce himself/herself and mention the duration of his/her sobriety and the name of his/her home group.

2. Open the meeting by a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer.

3. Read the PREAMBLE of AA.

4. Explain that the meeting is to inform your guests about what AA is and what AA is not, share how AA and the Twelve Steps have changed in our lives. Incite your guests to ask questions when they see fit.

5. Have the video Hope: Alcoholic Anonymous shown.

6. Read excerpts of the BIG BOOK like The Doctor’s Opinion, More About Alcoholism.

7. Tell your guests how AA helped us with our own addiction to alcohol and invite them to attend AA meetings to identify or acknowledge their own addiction to alcohol or not. Emphasize the importance of AA and the Twelve Steps in the recovery from alcoholism.

8. Emphasize the difference between open meetings and closed meetings which are intended for anyone with an alcohol problem. Explain there are other recovery programs for people who don’t think they have an alcohol problem, but are afflicted by other harmful addictions (p. ex. Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, CoDependents Anonymous, etc.). Emphasize the importance to attend AA meetings regularly (90 days, 90 meetings).

9. Explain the necessity of a temporary AA sponsor or contact. Besides, specify that the tempo rary contact or sponsorship has to be made with someone of the same sex than the requester (man/man, woman/woman) and that this person has to be sober through AA and the Twelve Steps. Explain how to find a temporary sponsor. Explain the necessity of a home group.

10. Suggest the persons concerned to get a copy of the following books: Alcoolics Anonymous (Big Book), Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions et Living Sober.

11. Give copies of the Serenity Prayer (cards) and local meetings’ lists. Specify the number of meetings held each week.

12. Explain that AA offers Bridging the Gap to help those concerned keep their sobriety when they will be released and that we, AA members, carry the message to maintain our own sobriety.

13. Check if there are any questions.

14. End the meeting by the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer with those who are willing to recite it.

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by email at:

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Reg

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The phone num

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and leave your name and coor-

dinates so that we can get in touch w

ith you.

Treatmen

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include all facilities where

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is treated. E.g. hospitals, C

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s,detox and rehab centres, half-w

ay houses, out-patient clinics, shelters, etc …

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portant 12thS

tep activity

and if you have more than 2 conti-

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please answ

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phlet, and hand it over to the GS

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Can w

e diffuse your name and phone num

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