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AA Volunteers

Telephone Service
Telephone Service involves answering phone calls from potential alcoholics and those seeking help for themselves or friends and family, guiding them on how to find meetings and start recovery, if they wish. You will be doing a shift of 4h at the telephone office in south London, within a team of 4 volunteers in total. There are 3 shift times available 7 days of the week: between 10am – 2pm, 2pm – 6pm, 6pm – 10pm. The hours can be flexible, upon previous arrangement with the team leader.

If you’ve got at least a year of continuous sobriety and want to do Telephone Service, the training session is held on the first Monday of each month at 7.15 (for a 7.30pm start), at the AA Service Office.

The telephone office is always in need of volunteers. If you are already trained but are not currently doing a shift and would like to, then please get in touch.

Southern Service Office (SSO)
Raven Wharf
14 Lafone Street
London SE1 2LR
Tel. No.: 0207 407 0700

SHARE Magazine Contribution
SHARE is the monthly magazine of Alcoholics Anonymous and it’s a vital sobriety tool. Produced by members for members, this accessible and contemporary magazine is ‘our meeting between meetings’, giving you the chance to share with other members you may never meet.

Subscribing and contributing to the magazine is great service, in fact, writing an article for Share is the Twelfth Step in action. As well as being a good way for newcomers to identify with others and learn about AA, SHARE is a real lifeline for people who are not able to get to meetings. And of course, it’s an invaluable source of information on AA groups and events across the country and beyond.

Help AA by writing about your experience, strength and hope for SHARE magazine

– Articles should be up to 1,000 words
– Stick to the themes (see overleaf for some topic ideas)
– Write about anything relating to your experience with alcoholism
– Don’t worry about spelling or grammar, our editors will take care of all that
– Each monthly issue correlates with and focuses on a STEP and TRADITION, e.g.: January: Step 1/Tradition 1, February: Step 2/Tradition 2, and so on
– Submit your article two months in advance. For example, Step 5 is published in the MAY issue, so the submission is required in MARCH

The full guidelines and extra info about how to write for SHARE magazine can be found here (look for the SHARE Magazine section in the directory).

To submit an article, purchase a copy or subscribe to SHARE, please contact:

AA GB General Service Office
P.O. Box 1
10 Toft Green
York, YO1 6JT
United Kingdom
Email: SHARE@gsogb.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)190 464 4026

 

Online ‘Chat Now’ & Messaging Service
AA GB now has an online chat and messaging service through this website, aimed at those seeking help with their drinking problem or making an enquiry. You can help by being a respondent. Due to its flexibility, this service is ideal for those wishing to do service remotely or from home and who have specific times that they are available.

You can find out more about how to get involved and help on +44 (0)190 464 4026 or by emailing the General Service Office on gso@alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk.

There is also a Chat Now Guidelines PDF online, for extra information.

If you would like to refer someone in need of help to the online chat and messaging service, share this page with them. Please note that if there is no one available for a chat, a message will be generated to the team and an aa respondent will get back to the enquirer as soon as possible. This is why your help is very important!


Remember… Service keeps your sober, so please give back to AA as much as you think AA has given to you!

Last updated: November 2019


Growing into Service
(from the pamphlet ‘Growing into Service’)
Alcoholics Anonymous is more than a set of principles; it is a Fellowship of alcoholics in action. Service is at the centre of every AA concept and activity. It is as fundamental to AA as abstinence is to sobriety. Without this giving of oneself to another, there would be no Fellowship. This desire to serve improves recovery.

As newcomers, we see people giving time, energy and love in the service of the Fellowship, and it is suggested that we too should become involved. Those of us who have done this will tell you of the enormous benefits we have received by willingly stepping into service. A great paradox of AA is that rewards come when we begin to forget ourselves.

What are these rewards?
Simple service tasks have helped to develop confidence, a belief in one’s own value and opinions, self-respect and self-worth. We have all found that participating in service activities has helped our recovery. Everyone in AA has some contribution to make. There are so many ways of practising our Twelfth Step. Some are talented in hospital or prison work, others can write to loners or answer telephones and some have abilities which lie in committee activities or sponsorship. But service is not just for a small number of experienced people. Each one of us has been surprised at the abilities which have emerged with a willingness to grow in service.