Just for Today

2010 - to date

The end of 2012 saw the launch of Alcoholics Anonymous Awareness Month in a bid to boost both AA’s profile, and increase public understanding of less known or more ‘socially acceptable’ drinking habits which could be indicative of alcoholism. November was chosen to coincide with the British alcohol abuse charity Alcohol Change UK’s flagship awareness program Alcohol Awareness Week 

Poster aimed at younger people suffering from alcoholism. Includes information on how to reach out to the Fellowship online (2010s)
Reference code: AA/9/8/23
 

In 2016, the ‘CHAT NOW’ function went live on the AA website, and opened an entirely new access point to attract newcomers to the Fellowship. This was in response to the 2015 membership survey which found that among members who had been with AA less than five years, the internet was significantly more likely to be mentioned as a route to AA. Not that the Fellowship had abandoned more traditional methods of outreach. In 2017, London Regions North and South had accumulated enough donations to launch a significant advertising campaign across the Underground. The campaign was intended to challenge stereotypes about what type of drinker qualifies as an ‘alcoholic’ and led with the slogan ‘Is Alcohol Costing You More Than Money’.

In October 2017, Great Britain’s first museum exhibition about Alcoholics Anonymous opened at Glasgow's iconic Kelvingrove Museum. Titled ‘Darkness into Light: The Story of Alcoholics Anonymous in Scotland’, the exhibition detailed the Scottish Fellowship’s history and ongoing work from its first meeting in 1948 into a country-wide organisation helping countless alcoholics in Scotland. The exhibition was officially opened by Sir Philip Dundas’s granddaughter Henrietta , and ran for four months.

Photograph of Henrietta Dundas, Sir Philip Dundas’s granddaughter, from the AA Darkness into Light exhibition held at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow (2017)
Image courtesy and copyright of CSG CIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Collections.
 

In December 2018, the Alcoholics Anonymous Great Britain Archive Cataloguing Project began at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The objective of the three year project was to unlock the potential of AA GB’s rich archive for the Fellowship, as well as academics, students, and the general public. In addition to uncovering previously hidden histories, the project has helped in the creation of this timeline and with the celebration of the 75th Anniversary.

Archive material from the Alcoholics Anonymous Great Britain Archive set up for research at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York (2018)

The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 was an unprecedented year for the world, and presented considerable challenges for Alcoholics Anonymous and its mission to help suffering alcoholics.  It was during this time that Alcoholics Anonymous was attracting more enquiries than ever before. While pubs and clubs had closed, more of the British public were drinking in isolation at home. The uncertainty around job losses and financial difficulties also contributed to a rise in drinking.  Since the outbreak, calls to the helpline rose by 22%, and users on the website’s ‘chat now’ service rose 31%, with the email service seeing a rise of 32%. 

At the outbreak of Covid and resulting lockdown, the 5,000 face to face AA meetings held in Great Britain had to move online. The majority of group turned to Zoom, Skype and other online platforms to hold their weekly meetings

In the midst of this increased interest, the Fellowship had to rapidly adapt to this ‘new normal’, with the majority of meetings moving online. This presented unique issues for the individual members and the wider British Fellowship, including adapting rapidly to new technology, reaching out to newcomers, securing anonymity, and preventing meetings being hijacked by online trolls. Due to the lockdown restrictions, 2020 was the first year a General Service Conference did not take place in its 54 year history. With the pandemic persisting, the Conference Steering Committee voted to move the GSC online for 2021.