Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Meetings

General Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Meeting Information

With 1,000’s of ACA meetings being held around the world every day, it’s easy for you to find local live meetings and online meetings with people from your local community in attendance. If you are in a treatment center, they will have meetings and may also provide transportation to and from meetings. Many meetings have childcare, to ensure mothers and fathers can attend meetings also.

Meetings for Adult Children of Alcoholics and are most often held in public places like churches, community centers, club houses and parks. During the COVID pandemic, many of your local ACA meetings are still being held on the same day and time as before, but have transitioned to an online platform like Zoom. While ACA groups do not affiliate themselves with any particular religion, they are spiritual in nature, with a goal of being a reality check on our overall program, comparing our current life in the program to our adult life before coming to the ACA program. In the meetings we come to understand how our childhood experiences shape our attitudes, behavior, and choices today. By practicing the Twelve Steps and by attending meetings regularly, we find freedom from the effects of alcoholism or other family dysfunction.” Meeting information can be found in two ways: City, State or Map search.

Types of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Meetings

As a general rule, there are two standard types of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings: open meetings and closed meetings. An open ACA meeting is open to anyone (ACA members, family, friends, and/or professionals). Closed ACA meetings are only for people who self-identify under ACA’s Tradition 3, which states, “The only requirement for membership is a desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family.”  Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings provide mental, emotion and spiritual support from the other individuals attending, who have been through similar situations. The ACA members of the group offer newer ACA members support and guidance based on their own personal experience in an effort to give the new ACA members hope that they can turn their lives around in a similar fashion. Additionally, newer ACA members help the longer term ACA members by helping them feel that they are doing good by giving back and helping others in similar situations.

Open and closed Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings often follow various formats including:

• Discussion ACA Meetings: Possibly the most common meeting format, the chairperson or leader of the meeting will choose a topic to discuss during the meeting. These meetings may be open or closed.
• Beginner ACA Meetings: These meetings are led by a veteran member who has been Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) for a long period of time and may follow a variety of formats (discussion, topic, book, literature, step, etc.), while focusing on the first three of the 12 Steps of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA), or it may be more of a question-and-answer type format.
• Speaker ACA Meetings: ACA members who have been sober for a minimum period of time may be chosen beforehand to share their past experiences and how working through “The Program,” as ACA’s 12 Steps and Traditions may be referred to, has helped them get to where they are today. These NA meetings are often open to the public, many are recorded, so you can listen to your favorite Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Speakers any time you want.
• Book, Step, Tradition or Literature ACA Meetings: A reading from various ACA Literature is read, shared on and worked through during the meeting. These ACA meetings are usually held in a rotation as the ACA Steps, Traditions, Book or Literature are worked through. Individuals may use workbooks and texts during the ACA meeting or for homework assignments.
• Service ACA Meetings: These may be information meetings about ACA service opportunities within the group or ACA as a whole. Often times reports on ACA service activities the ACA group has performed are often provided.
• Group Inventory ACA Meetings: ACA members work to determine if the particular ACA group is fulfilling its primary purpose and functioning effectively.
• Business ACA Meetings: Generally, Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) business meetings are for the ACA members involved in the business aspects of the ACA group. They may also include the ACA group electing officers or other ACA group business needs.

People can attend as many Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings as the want and are often encouraged to attend a number of meetings until they find a meeting or set of meetings they like and that have people attending who they can relate to. People are encouraged to find an ACA home group which they attend regularly. This is usually a meeting you relate to, that has people who are benefiting from the meeting and Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) program. They generally take a commitment at their ACA home group and hold themselves and others accountable for attending.

How is a Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Meeting Conducted?

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) membership is open to anyone who self-identify under ACA’s Tradition 3, which states, “The only requirement for membership is a desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family.”  People do not have to do anything prior to attending an ACA meeting; they can just show up. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meeting attendance is kept confidential, and individuals are welcome to attend as many different Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings as they desire. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings are typically an hour, but there are also many longer meetings and some shorter in duration.

Typical Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Meeting Format

Individual Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) groups may differ slightly in the way they run Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings, but in general, a typical format for an ACA meeting is as follows:

• Welcome and opening
• Moment of silence and recitation of the Serenity Prayer
• Explanation of 12-Steps, expectation of confidentiality, and reiteration of openness to all and no cost for membership
• Reading from the Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) Literature
• Introductions around the room (first name only, though no one is required to speak)
• Introduction of the speaker or facilitator of the meeting
• Discussion
• Announcements
• Passing of the collection plate, donations are not required although this is how the ACA group sustains itself
• Closing, most likely with a Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) reading and a closing prayer

As Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings are meant to be a fellowship, there is also often coffee and refreshments at some point either before, during, or after the ACA meeting for networking and socializing. ACA members may choose to volunteer at ACA meetings as coffee makers, greeters, literature distributor, or they can get more involved volunteering as the ACA group’s secretary, ACA treasurer, ACA chairperson, etc.

Those who have been in Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) for a long period of time may become a “sponsor” for newer ACA members. A sponsor is a more veteran member of the ACA group, who has gone through the same difficulty you may be facing, has taken the 12-steps of the ACA program, knows the literature and will guide you through the 12 steps of Adult Children of Alcoholics to help with your success. ACA sponsors also offer encouragement around the clock, helping to provide in-the-moment support and guidance when needed, and introduce you to other Recovery Resources. ACA sponsors are often available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, usually by phone, to help sponsees get through potentially difficult situations, temptations, or triggering events. ACA sponsors may meet or check-in with their sponsees regularly, and lifelong relationships may be formed.

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) groups are safe environments free from drugs, and other mind altering substances, where individuals are surrounded by others with the same goal of sustained clean time and recovery. These Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings can provide individuals with a network of clean peers who can understand and empathize with each other in ways that others who are not in Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) may not be able to as easily.

The Recovery HQ Team is here to help you!

It’s important to know that you and your loved one are not alone in your fight for sobriety. Whether you choose to go to Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) meetings, take up meditation or yoga or use other resources, taking the first step toward regaining your life has begun. Contact our dedicated team and we will help find the solution which best fits your needs.