Twelve-step recovery and community service

Twelve-step fellowships have been viewed as possibly inhibiting participants' community involvement. This article reports on a qualitative study of 33 recovering people who attended a 12-step fellowship and involved themselves in the community to find out how this involvement was affected by their 12-step participation. This article describes the participants' community activity and their perceptions of how it related to their recovery process. Respondents reported that the fellowship prepared them for community activity by teaching them skills, giving them opportunities to practice participation with others, motivating them to contribute, and directing them toward community service. Implications for practice are discussed.