The Twelfth-Step-Within Committee was created at OA’s 1985 World Service Business Conference to reach out to those in the Fellowship who still suffer and to address the relapse and recovery of our members. The committee’s purpose is to strengthen Overeaters Anonymous by sharing information and ideas that generate recovery within the Fellowship.
If you are a still-suffering OA member, please call or e-mail your local intergroup and ask for a “Care Package.” This will include a current meeting list, names of relapse survivors, marathons or retreats scheduled and other information to help you move forward in your recovery. You are not alone.
The following is an overview of what your group can do to be available to members in relapse:
- Hold workshops, marathons and retreats
- Practice carefrontation by individuals, groups and intergroups
- Sponsor personally or by mail
- Focus on membership retention
Provide literature that addresses Twelfth-Step-Within concerns, such as:
- Members in relapse
- Recovery Checklist
- Recovery from Relapse Meeting format
- Welcome Back
- Together we can – Keep coming back
- A New Beginning: Stories of Recovery from Relapse
See the revised Twelfth Step Within Handbook for more information. Included in its many new features is Been Slippin’ and Sliding a Reading and Writing Tool which includes 30 questions for use in daily writing and discussion with a sponsor, and the Recovery Insurance Policy — a pledge between two OA members to support and be accountable to one another — and suggestions for Planning A Sponsorship Workshop