About Al-Anon/Alateen Family Groups (AFG)

The primary purpose of Al-Anon/Alateen is to help families and friends of alcoholics whether the alcoholic is drinking or not.

What is Al-Anon/Alateen?

The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength, and hope in order to solve their common problems.  Al-Anon/Alateen is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organization, or institution; does not engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any cause.

Al-Anon Meetings are free, anonymous and confidential. There are no dues for membership. Al-Anon/Alateen is self -supporting through its own voluntary contributions, and through the sale of Conference-approved
Al-Anon/Alateen literature (CAL).

Who are we?

Al-Anon/Alateen unites members of different ages, backgrounds, races, and walks of life in an inspiring endeavor: helping themselves and others to lead purposeful, useful lives by overcoming the frustration and helplessness caused by close association with an alcoholic. Our personal situations may be different, but we share as equals because of what we have in common: our lives have been affected by another person’s drinking. Al-Anon is a mutual support group.

How does it work?

The message of Al-Anon and Alateen is one of hope. It is the story of men, women and children who once felt helpless, lost, and lonely because of another’s alcoholism. Today these men, women, and children have courage and confidence. They have found understanding friends. They have learned what to do to help themselves – and this can indirectly help their alcoholic relatives, loved ones, and friends, whether sober or not. Al-Anon’s program of recovery is based on the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions as adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

Alateen (Al-Anon for younger members) is a vital part of the Al-Anon Family Groups’ program. Young people seeking help with problems that arise when alcoholism afflicts a parent, another close relative, or a friend meet to exchange experiences and to gain an understanding of themselves and the alcoholic. This helps their own personal development and can help stabilize troubled thinking resulting from close association with an alcoholic. Learn more about Alateen.

Our Three Legacies

Recovery Through the Steps

Study of these steps is essential to progress in the Al-Anon program. The principles they embody are universal, applicable to everyone, whatever your personal creed. In Al-Anon, we strive for an ever-deeper understanding of these Steps and pray for the wisdom to apply them to our lives.

Unity Through the Traditions

These guidelines are a means of promoting harmony and growth in Al-Anon groups and in the worldwide fellowship of Al-Anon as a whole. Our group experience suggests that our unity depends upon our adherence to these Traditions.

Service Through the Concepts

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions are guides for personal growth and group unity. The Twelve Concepts are guides for service. They show how Twelfth-Step work can be done on a broad scale and how members of a World Service Office can relate to each other and to the groups, through a World Service Conference, to spread Al-Anon’s message worldwide.