Usscna.org

 Helping to register groups with service committees  Compiling or advising in the compilation of meeting WHAT IS OUTREACH
Developing or maintaining an informative map of service boundaries Most dictionary definitions of “outreach” describe it as: to reach beyond, to surpass. In Narcotics Anonymous, we use  Encouraging members to be involved in NA Service, the term to describe an array of services designed specifically to insure that any NA member, group, or meeting can  Helping members and groups to learn about ordering participate in the NA service structure and receive services literature and receiving NA publications, they so desire. The goals of outreach service are to assist  Facilitation the development and availability of groups in solving problems that may impede their growth or threaten their survival and to help groups overcome many  Helping groups to provide for members with kinds of isolation by encouraging increased knowledge, contact and exposure to NA as a whole and to the NA service structure. The fundamental approach in outreach For discussion purposes, we can describe three efforts often described as support services for groups and general categories of outreach service; extended, service committees, is helping groups and committees to help themselves. In may ways, this really is reaching beyond or surpassing our normal or routine service efforts. Extended Outreach
Outreach service is meant to complement rather than Extended outreach efforts focus on communication as a duplicate the activities of any existing service committee, way to minimize the isolation created by geographical, board or the USSC. Many of our service committees, to be language and cultural barriers. The main objective is to bring effective, must prioritize the nature and schedule for delivery isolated members or groups together with other parts of of their services due to the limits imposed by available NA. These services can include; facilitation correspondence, human and financial resources. Sometimes this results in a coordination of long distance travels to support groups, lack of basic communication and support to NA members maintaining conduct information files, helping plan activities and groups. Formalized outreach subcommittees appear for those who could not otherwise come together, and around our fellowship because they provide a systematic collecting information for outreach newsletters. approach for one group of addicts to help another by serving Community Outreach
The activities of existing outreach subcommittees vary Whether in an emerging NA community or an widely, each one tailored to the needs of those it serves. established urban setting, fellowship development seems to There are, however, common themes and tasks shared by follow a very similar process. Often, alternating spurts of many who participate in outreach efforts. Describing what growth followed by plateaus characterized this outreach subcommittees do may be the best way to define outreach. While none do all, most outreach subcommittees where NA already exists, some type of service structures has been developed to meet local needs. In these situations, it is fairly common to find NA members or outreach subcommittees providing support services to the existing NA  Provide a direct line-of-communication to isolated communities in countryside, suburban and/or metropolitan members and groups, in and out of institutions, settings. The focus in this setting is on participation.  Present or take part in activities designed to bring Assisting groups in need of support, helping GSRs to isolated members and groups together with each attend area meetings, helping groups to become re-involved in the local service structure, and helping groups to register are the primary functions of community oriented outreach Conduct workshops on group level service, provide orientation sessions for GSRs, and develop GSR Institutional Outreach
Conduct outreach workshops at learning events, Institutional outreach efforts, designed to allow groups in institutions to participate in the service  Facilitating, encouraging and improving GSR structure, can include personal contact, correspondence, newsletters, and literature mailings. These services are  Assisting groups in need of support and group trusted directed at NA meetings that are not H&I panels, yet have been started in institutions, long-term facilities, prisons, state hospitals, military bases, and nursing homes. These meetings and groups spring up from a variety of sources. USSC Group Conscience Approved October 26th, 2013 Often, NA is not available at all until our hospital and institutions committees conduct a series of panel presentations. Sometime later, staff professionals, patients, or inmates start an NA meeting. Sometimes, meetings in an institutional setting result from one or more recovering addicts becoming incarcerated. Also, professionals who have learned about NA through our public information efforts start NA groups in various settings. Regardless of how they came to exist, these NA meetings can easily become isolated from other NA groups, and service committees. Sometimes the only link to NA fro a group in one of these facilities is contact with an outreach subcommittee or registration with the World Service Office. Some NA communities have used outreach services for many years, and some are just now considering the idea. To the struggling group or the isolated member, it is often outreach services that rekindle the hope and spirit of “Together We Can” as a theme for recovery in Narcotics Anonymous. Outreach subcommittees work to provide growth and unity by bringing a variety of groups or meetings into contact with the service structure, allowing new and existing elements of the fellowship to benefit from shared experience. Funding comes from the service committee to which they are responsible. In some places, outreach effort are a regional activity. Elsewhere, area subcommittees provide these services directly with a regional subcommittee serving as a forum or coordinating body. It is important to emphasis that the mission of outreach activities are to assist groups to become self- sustaining, and not to enforce a uniform understanding of traditions, foster dependency nor to simply start new groups. Successful outreach committees have learned to avoid creating an additional level of structure bureaucracy or barrier to the direct communication between new, emerging, or isolated groups and the rest of the fellowship and service structure. At the 2012 United States Service Conference meeting, the USSC Outreach Subcommittee was created to provide a resource to outreach subcommittees in their efforts to develop and sustain NA groups and to encourage their involvement in NA service. closely with the United States Fellowship to assist in the formation of new outreach subcommittees, compile and distribute resource information, and coordinate an outreach network for communication. To register your outreach committee or receive outreach bulletins and resource information, please contact the USSC Outreach Subcommittee, c/o the USSC office, P.O Box 8378 Rockford, IL 61126. USSC Group Conscience Approved October 26th, 2013

Source: http://www.usscna.org/sites/usscna.org/files/outreach/outreachsb1.pdf