The
purpose of Public Information work in Narcotics
Anonymous is to inform the public that NA exists
and offers recovery from the disease of
addiction. A Public Information Committee helps
to ensure that information about our fellowship
is accurate and is available to the public.
The
World Service Conference Public Information
Committee has compiled the following guidelines
to support emerging NA communities needing some
basic guidance in fulfilling our primary purpose
in the public arena.
Public
Information, or PI, is an area of service work
in our fellowship which has matured greatly in
recent years. However, our PI service manual, A
Guide to Public Information needs to be
translated into other languages to reflect our
fellowship's experiences and worldwide
membership. Until the translations can be
completed, we wish to help our worldwide
fellowship by offering some basic and simple
guidelines for doing this type of NA service.
Our
primary purpose as a fellowship is to carry the
message to the addict who still suffers. PI is a
vital part of "carrying the message."
Doing this type of service calls upon us to
communicate and participate in areas of the
community in which, as using addicts, we were
once unwelcome. Courage and humility are
necessary ingredients in our recovery when
approaching the public about our fellowship. We
hope that you find this part of NA service as
rewarding and challenging as we have.
Public
Information and the NA Member
Every member of NA has a role in
helping us carry the message to the
still-suffering addict. Much of the goodwill
that exists between NA and the community is
based on the relationships that we maintain as
NA members. We can improve these relationships
for our fellowship by taking care to treat
others with courtesy and respect. This is
especially important when we represent the
fellowship to professionals and members of other
organizations who may spread their good or bad
impressions of us to others. We need to project
a positive image of NA so that these individuals
feel comfortable directing addicts seeking
recovery to our meetings.
When we participate in a public
information event, we accept responsibility for
our behavior. If we are rude, use profanity, or
show a lack of respect for a facility or for
other organizations, we bring into question the
effectiveness of our recovery program.
We
can also be seen as members of Narcotics
Anonymous when we wear an NA T-shirt in public,
stand around outside a group meeting, or attend
an NA convention or service conference. As a
fellowship, we have no control over the behavior
of individual NA members. As members, however,
keeping our spiritual principles in mind, we can
share our concerns about our public image with
other members. We can communicate to them that a
bad image of Narcotics Anonymous could easily
keep the message of recovery from reaching the
addict who still suffers.
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Public
Information and the NA Group
Members of NA groups can and
often do perform some basic PI work to help
carry the message of recovery to addicts, as
well as to the public. PI efforts by groups are
often limited to posting bulletins, printing and
distributing meeting schedules, and informing
other addicts about their meetings.
Groups
should always be careful not to make statements
or commitments that overstep their abilities.
It's important to have enough resources
available to respond to inquiries. Our spiritual
foundation of anonymity can be seriously damaged
by members acting alone or independently of the
group and the fellowship. We never do speaking
engagements, presentations, or interviews alone.
As
the number of meetings and groups increases, the
need for additional services to the groups is
usually met by the formation of an Area Service
Committee (ASC). We start these service
committees so that the groups are not distracted
from their own primary purpose. Our groups need
to stay focused on their primary purpose and
provide a safe environment in which to practice
the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
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Public
Information and the Hospitals and Institutions
Committee
Understanding the purpose and
need for cooperation between committees is an
important part of providing service in NA. We
may understand our own functions well, but often
know little of how other committees operate. It
is critical to understand the relationship
between the Hospitals and Institutions Committee
and the Public Information Committee.
The
purpose of the Hospitals and Institutions
Committee, or H&I, is to carry the NA
message to addicts in hospitals or other
institutions who do not have full access to
regular Narcotics Anonymous meetings. The
H&I Committee will organize a team of NA
members, called a panel, to go into these
institutions and introduce the basics of the NA
program to addicts in that institution. The
basic difference in function is that H&I
panels present the program primarily to addicts
and the PI Committee makes its presentation
primarily to non-addicts.
Here
is an example to illustrate our different
responsibilities and cooperative spirit: If a
hospital contacted the local fellowship to
request a presentation of the program to their
doctors and nurses, the PI committee would be
primarily responsible to do a presentation.
However, the local H&I Committee should be
informed of the event and invited to
participate. A member from H&I would be most
knowledgeable about the local H&I Committee
and could answer questions about its ability and
requirements to bring panels to the hospital.
Using the same example, if the request were to
present the program to the patients at the
hospital, it would be the H&I Committee's
responsibility to make this presentation. The PI
Committee should be available to the H&I
Committee if this contact were to become an
opportunity for a presentation to the staff at
the hospital.
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Starting
A Public Information Committee
A public information
subcommittee is an important part of most area
service committees. If there is an ASC available
to you, attend a scheduled meeting with other NA
members interested in doing PI work and express
your willingness to serve or start a PI
Committee. From this point on, public
information efforts should be done with the
support and guidance of your ASC.
If
there is no Area Service Committee available to
you, schedule a meeting of local group members
interested in public information to form a PI
committee. You may want to begin by establishing
the committee's purpose, functions, and
responsibilities, and then deciding how the
committee should serve the local members of the
fellowship. A PI committee initially should
handle such things as: creating, updating, and
distributing meeting schedules, responding to
requests for information, establishing a stable
mailing address, helping a Hospitals and
Institutions Committee when asked, and managing
other PI projects within that area or region.
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A
Contingency Plan
As Narcotics Anonymous grows,
representatives of the print and electronic
media will show increasing interest in our
fellowship. When the media becomes interested in
NA, their reporters often approach us without an
understanding of the principle of anonymity.
Maintaining personal anonymity at the level of
press, radio, and films must be our highest
priority when contacts are made with the public
and the media. We have found that having a
"contingency plan" is of great value
for a PI committee.
Creating
a contingency plan is one of the first
priorities for a new PI committee. This plan is
a strategy for organizing our response to public
and media requests for information. Very simply,
it should state what to do when certain types of
requests are received from the public. Use of
the plan can help ensure that our most
experienced PI members are involved, so that the
local fellowship can keep to its primary purpose
and we can stay consistent with our traditions.
The plan should include a list of members
involved in public information who are familiar
with NA media responses.
The
contingency plan should also include guidelines
for handling requests which will affect other
groups, areas, and regions. If a request does
affect other service groups in NA, coordination
and cooperation are needed in order to
facilitate an effective response.
The
WSC PI Committee has a contingency plan for
media events which may be significant to
Narcotics Anonymous as a whole. If your
committee has received a request to participate
in such an event, it is imperative that you
contact the closest WSC PI Committee member,
trustee, or the World Service Office PI
Coordinator to plan the response.
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The
Work Itself
It is clear that we cannot be
everything for everybody. We are a recovery
organization whose members meet regularly to
help each other stay clean. It is all right for
us to decline a request which is outside our
fellowship's primary purpose. It is also
reasonable for us to decline a request that is
within our purpose if we do not have the time,
money, and members to honor the request. The
important thing to remember is that we respond!
Failure to respond, even if we are declining a
request, demonstrates a lack of integrity on
behalf of our fellowship.
To
carry a clear NA message to the public, we as
members need to have a clear knowledge of our
traditions. It takes practice to learn the
traditions and understand how to apply them. We
have reserved a portion of this guide for a
discussion on the traditions, and how they
impact PI work.
Our
objective in doing public information work
should be simply to spread the word that the
fellowship is available, that it works, and that
it's free. Here are some frequently used methods
to accomplish this:
A.
Meeting List(s)
-- If there is more than one meeting in your
community, creating and maintaining a listing of
meeting information should be your highest
priority. This list should contain information
such as the day, time, and location (a street
address is preferred), and if the meeting is
open to the public. It may also contain
information such as the type of meeting (step
study, speaker, or discussion, for example),
smoking or non-smoking, and any other special
information. Meeting lists should be updated on
a regular basis. It's our responsibility to make
sure that newcomers to our program are given
accurate information on how to find us when they
reach out for help.
B.
Posters
--
These are notices used to inform the public
about how and where to contact us. It is
critical that when we post these notices, we
first obtain permission to do so. Some possible
posting locations are: detoxification
facilities, hospitals, police stations, schools
and universities, churches or missionary
outreach offices, government service offices,
drug treatment centers, or other places where
addicts seeking recovery or people who help
addicts might congregate.
We
need to stress that "attraction rather than
promotion" is an important concept when
doing public information work such as this. Good
judgment should be used when creating and
posting these notices. We need to refrain from
provocative, promotional statements or artwork
which may convey a negative image or appear to
be promotional. Even how and where we post them
should be evaluated before we follow through on
the project. A simple message that we are
available and how to contact us is the desired
result.
Contents
of printed media, such as bulletins, posters,
and newspaper ads, usually consist of an
attention-grabbing statement or question,
followed by information on how to contact the
local meeting, group, or phoneline. As an
example, a bulletin, poster, or newspaper ad
might be as follows:
Drug
Problem? Narcotics Anonymous can help! [Your
Contact Information] Samples
can be obtained from the World Service Office to
help you create your own bulletin, poster, or
ad.
C.
Introductory Mailings
-- We can introduce the program to professionals
in health organizations and social services, and
to others who deal with addicts, by mailing them
information about our fellowship. A mailing
should consist of a letter to explain who you
are, where you can be contacted, and some basic
information about Narcotics Anonymous in your
community, including the fact that we are a part
of a worldwide fellowship. Normally we include a
local meeting list and, if possible, some NA
pamphlets. If appropriate, the cover letter
might also mention that speakers are available
to meet with them and/or their staff, if your
local fellowship is able to fulfill this type of
request.
Pamphlets
such as NA--A Resource in Your Community;
Who, What, How and Why; the NA White
Booklet; and Welcome to Narcotics
Anonymous are good choices for introduction
to our program. You may find that Am I an
Addict?, For the Newcomer, and Sponsorship
are also helpful. We acknowledge that not
all of these pamphlets may be available in your
language. Use what you have. If you don't have
any translated pamphlets available, you may be
able to use pamphlets in another language for
professionals.
Your
local PI Committee can create a standard
"packet" for mailings and for
distribution during presentations. Be realistic
regarding costs and choice of pamphlets, whether
mailing them or just passing them out at a
presentation.
D.
Presentations --
You may receive requests to give a presentation
about Narcotics Anonymous to professionals at an
institution or to an organization at a
conference. You may also receive an invitation
to set up booths or tables at a public event to
provide some basic information about NA. If you
agree that it is appropriate and you have the
resources to do it, remember:
- Do
presentations with others.
- To
help establish a good impression, start with
a good appearance.
- Avoid
using obscenities.
- Be
aware of the composition of your audience.
If you are addressing non-addicts, as is
usually the case, remember that the sort of
NA language which is commonly used and
understood by members of the fellowship in
our meetings is not typical outside those
meetings. Too much "program talk"
or emphasis on the finer details of our
recovery program is simply a foreign
language to non-addicts and therefore should
be avoided.
- While
some personal disclosure is encouraged, the
focus must remain on a clear NA message.
It's not who we are as individuals, it's how
we became clean addicts through the Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions of NA.
- Avoid
telling "drug stories." We are
there to speak about how we found a new way
to live free from active addiction through
NA, not how it was when we were using.
- Our
attractions are: it works, it's free, and we
are available to the addict that still
suffers
E.
Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
-- PSAs are notices which reach the public by
way of press, radio, and television. Public
service announcements are commonly posted in
specific areas of various media in which members
of the public are allowed to announce items of
interest to the community, free of charge. This
is an accepted method of informing the public
about NA, and is not viewed as a direct
contribution by an outside source. However, if
the announcement must contain a sponsoring
organization's name ("this ad presented by
the ABC Company") as part of the PSA, that
would be unacceptable in light of our
traditions.
Printed
PSAs can be created by the local PI committee.
We caution local committees against creating
their own videos. The cost and process involved
in creating a video PSA can greatly distract a
PI committee from carrying the message, as well
as strain the resources of the local fellowship.
If you wish to be involved with the production
of PSAs and videos, please contact the WSO
Public Information Coordinator.
The
WSC PI Committee has conference-approved scripts
for radio and television PSAs which can be
adapted for use in your community. The scripts
are contained in the Guide to Public Information
and the tapes are available through the World
Service Office.
F.
Phonelines
--
A telephone number may be established in your
community as a contact for addicts seeking
recovery and for receiving inquiries about our
fellowship from the public. You should establish
a phoneline service only when you are physically
and financially able to support it. A lot of
hard work and responsibilities are involved with
a phoneline, and the decision to start one
should be taken seriously. Think of the
consequences if an addict seeking recovery or a
professional called and the telephone number was
disconnected: an addict would continue to
suffer, and a poor impression would be given to
the professional. Information on starting and
maintaining a phoneline is covered in a separate
guide available from the World Service Office.
G.
Learning Days and Workshops
-- These are an internal service offered to the
members of our fellowship. Usually a few
dedicated members will set aside time to share
their experience with other interested members
and NA groups on how to do some of the basic
work of PI committees. One of our
responsibilities is to inform the fellowship at
large about our function in service and how to
get in touch with us if anyone is contacted by
the public and the media. More information on
this topic is contained in the Guide to Public
Information.
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The
Twelve Traditions and Public Information
Public information work is done
by service committees or groups created by, and
directly responsible to, those they serve: NA
members. We do the best we can with what we have
while upholding our Twelve Traditions. Our
experience has taught us that we need an
understanding of the Twelve Traditions of
Narcotics Anonymous as they apply to public
information. It has proven beneficial to spend
time studying and discussing the traditions. The
knowledge gained helps us to be more confident
in our presentation of NA. This confidence is
apparent to our audience and assists in
developing a positive image of our fellowship.
The following traditions play an important role
in PI work and have direct applications to PI
service.
Our
Sixth Tradition states: An
NA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend
the NA name to any related facility or outside
enterprise, lest problems of money, property or
prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
"This tradition is the basis for our policy
of non-affiliation and is extremely important to
the continuation and growth of Narcotics
Anonymous." (Narcotics Anonymous Basic
Text, Page 66, 5th Edition, English) While it is
important to reach as many people as possible
with our message of recovery, it is imperative
that we not risk our independence by becoming
reliant on any outside source. If NA becomes
strongly identified with any "related
facility or outside enterprise" (club
houses, drug treatment centers, or other Twelve
Step fellowships, for example), our primary
purpose and independence will become confused
with the priorities of others.
Cooperation
with those who come in contact with addicts is
important when carrying the message of NA.
Without this cooperation, many addicts would
never have found our fellowship. We want to work
with other organizations, but we do not want to
be merged with them in the mind of the public.
To give the impression that we are one and the
same would threaten our independence. Our aim is
simply to make it known that NA is available. It
may require additional effort to make clear the
distinction between NA and other organizations.
However, we will be rewarded as more addicts
find us through other sources and our fellowship
continues to grow.
Our
Tenth Tradition states: Narcotics
Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues;
hence the NA name ought never be drawn into
public controversy. "Our recovery speaks
for itself. Our Tenth Tradition specifically
helps protect our reputation." (Narcotics
Anonymous Basic Text, Page 71, 5th Edition,
English) We have no recommendations for any
outside organizations, nor do we participate in
their politics. To do so would invite
controversy which would jeopardize our
fellowship's standing in the community. If we
voice an opinion on any public issue, we may
block the path for a new member to join our
fellowship. It is critical that we remember this
aspect of keeping our fellowship open to any
addict who has the desire to stop using.
Our
Eleventh Tradition states: Our
public relations policy is based on attraction
rather than promotion; we need always maintain
personal anonymity at the level of press, radio,
and films. "Our attraction is that we are
successes in our own right. As groups we offer
recovery. We have found that the success of our
program speaks for itself." (Narcotics
Anonymous Basic Text, Page 72, 5th Edition,
English) This tradition tells us that we do not
have to promote recovery; the changes in our
lives will be apparent to those around us. The
positive effect of our own personal recovery is
a powerful element of attraction to our program.
We
do need to inform the general public of our
existence. The difference between attraction and
promotion is in the content of the message and
its presentation. Providing basic information
and informing the public of who, what, and where
we are is well within the definition of
attraction. When we go beyond the act of simply
informing the public that we exist, we cross the
borderline into promotion.
Participation
by NA members in public information events is
not a violation of anonymity. It is a personal
choice made by those who serve to give up some
of their anonymity. Obviously, to give our full
names to the press, allow our faces to be
photographed, or appear on television or film in
association with or identified as a member of
Narcotics Anonymous is plainly a violation of
the Eleventh Tradition. This can threaten an
individual member's personal recovery and give a
false impression to newcomers that they will
have to reveal their identities to others.
Our
Twelfth Tradition states: Anonymity
is the spiritual foundation of all our
traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities. "The
spiritual foundation becomes more important than
any one particular group or individual."
(Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, Page 72, 5th
Edition, English) This tradition reminds us that
NA is a "WE" program, and that the
sacrifice of personal ambition is inherent to
the spiritual principle of anonymity.
When
we act on our own in public information we lose
the spirit of humility inherent in a
"we" program. The damage done to NA's
reputation by individuals acting on their own
can take a long time to repair. Being of service
in PI we get a glimpse of humility every time a
newcomer walks through the door of an NA
meeting. We can then recognize the spiritual aim
of the fellowship and our own place within it.
We are grateful to be able to carry the message
of recovery and can acknowledge the actions of a
power greater than ourselves.
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What
We Do and What We Don't Do in Public Information
We
Do:
- Follow
our traditions, contingency plans and
guidelines.
- Try
to be consistent. We follow through on our
plans of action.
- Keep
updated records of contacts, posted flyers,
PSAs, etc.
- Remember
that quality is better than quantity.
- Present
a good image of recovery. We are punctual,
dress appropriately, and avoid using
obscenities when we speak.
- Consult
with members experienced in PI work before
contacting the media.
We
Don't:
- Do
Public Information alone.
- Abuse
our precious resources. When we don't
complete a project, we create a negative
image of NA.
- Present
ourselves as the only spokesperson for NA.
- Accept
contributions from outside our fellowship.
- State
an opinion, or take a stand on any
controversial or public issue.
- Give
out personal information about individual NA
members.
Narcotics
Anonymous Does Not:
- Operate
hospitals or recovery houses for addicts.
- Solicit,
advertise, or persuade others to join.
- Engage
in or sponsor scientific research on
addiction.
- Keep
membership records or case histories of its
members.
- Make
medical or psychological diagnosis.
- Provide
marriage, family, or vocational counseling.
- Provide
monetary or social assistance.
- Provide
or participate in primary drug prevention
education.
- Accept
money for its services and is not funded by
any public or private agencies.
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Additional
Resources
A more complete list of
guidelines for beginning a PI committee may be
found in A Guide to Public Information. Other
related materials are A Guide to Phoneline
Service and bulletins on specific topics
pertaining to Public Information. Contact the
World Service Office to obtain any of these
materials. More information may also be obtained
from neighboring Public Information Committees.
The WSO PI Coordinator can assist you in
contacting others close to you with PI
experience. Sharing our experience, strength and
hope in this area of service can greatly enhance
the ties that bind us together.
We
recognize that there are legal restrictions in
many countries prohibiting the congregation of
addicts. Please contact the World Service Office
for additional information before moving forward
with public information efforts in areas where
these restrictions exist.
The
World Service Conference Public Information
Committee or the Southern California Region
Public Information Committee may be contacted at
the addresses listed. Thank you for letting us
serve by sharing with you our experience,
strength, and hope on carrying the message of
recovery to the world.
Southern
California Regional Service Office
1937
S. Myrtle Avenue
Monrovia, CA 91016
USA
Tel. (626) 359-0084
Fax. (626) 305-0354
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Service Office, Inc.
PO. Box 9999
Van Nuys, CA 91409
USA
Tel. (818) 773-9999
Fax (818) 700-0700
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