How To Volunteer

AA members bring AA meetings into hospitals, recovery centers, rehabs, community facilities, jails, and prisons in Santa Cruz County. Because the confined inmates and residents often cannot purchase literature due to their circumstances, a selection of AA Literature is brought into the meeting and provided free to the members who attend; this is where approximately 90% of the money contributed to the H&I Pink Cans goes.

Following are the three basic positions available for doing service to the H&I committee in Santa Cruz County.

Meeting Volunteers are the people who are responsible for bringing meetings into the many hospitals, recovery centers, detoxes, and jails in Santa Cruz County. They are the meeting secretary and go into a facility to conduct a one-hour AA meeting. They use a standard AA meeting script and follow a format of their choice. If interested, use the form at the end of this page to sign up.
Facility Coordinators are the people who are responsible for coordinating H&I at each facility, checking in the meeting secretaries, and giving a report at the monthly H&I meetings. To express interest in being a Facility Coordinator please email: santacruzcountyhi@gmail.com
H&I Group Representatives are the people who serve as the vital communication link between the local H&I committee and their Home Group; they make announcements and keep their groups informed about H&I activities, and they attend H&I business meetings to discuss and vote on issues. If the current AA meetings in Santa Cruz that you attend do not have an H&I meeting-level representative, feel free to volunteer for this position (and come to the monthly H&I committee meeting to get info to share back at your meeting.)

Some things to note:

To secretary a meeting, working knowledge of the AA Big Book is recommended
For volunteering in jails, requirements are: oneyear of sobriety, five years since the last felony & 2 yrs since the last misdemeanor.
For volunteering in hospitals, recovery programs, and other institutions: No current sobriety requirement. Recommend six months of sobriety.
To volunteer in jail, you must go through and pass a security clearance and attend a jail orientation session. This process takes time (generally several weeks to one month.)
To volunteer in a non-jail facility, placement is usually one to two weeks after you submit your volunteer form.

To view facilities with current needs please visit the Santa Cruz County H&I help wanted page.

To begin volunteering to lead an AA meeting in a jail or other facility please complete the online H&I Volunteer Interest form