ITALYPAA

About Us

Around the year 1945, the first youth groups in Alcoholics Anonymous began to form in Los Angeles, CA, Cleveland, OH, and Philadelphia, PA. Today, these groups can be found throughout the world, including in Europe in Sweden, England, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Malta, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, and other countries. Youth groups in AA are no different from Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole. They carry the basic life message of AA and uphold the commitment of AA responsibility:

I am responsible when someone, anywhere asks for help, I want the hand of AA to always be present and for this I am responsible

Italypaa was born following the Eurypaa meeting that took place in Rome in 2015, where some Italian alcoholics young in age or at heart had the opportunity to meet and get to know each other, discovering the common desire to create new moments of meeting and growth in the AA program.

The term “youth” refers to all those who are willing to grow up, alcoholism has no barriers, including age. Even if there were any doubts about the word youth, the Third Illustrated Tradition of our literature approved by the conference explains that “A group or a set of groups can always be formed having a «special interest», whose members are either young or all men or all women, or priests or belonging to a certain category of any kind.” Italypaa is, in fact, an AA event that has as its only primary purpose the transmission of the AA message and is organized by alcoholic members of AA Italy usually engaged in service roles in the structure of AA Italy.

ITALYPAA is organized with the intent of celebrating sobriety in AA by placing greater emphasis on the recovery of young people or those who are young at heart, to show how they too can become sober, as well as be a vital part of AA as a whole.

We invite all AA members to attend the convention. The number of young people suffering from Alcoholism and seeking help from AA is constantly growing. ITALYPAA is, and will remain, faithful to the commitment to bring the message of recovery of AA to alcoholics of all ages. The ITALYPAA convention offers the opportunity for AA members in Italy and abroad to unite in harmony by sharing their experience, strength and hope.

In a spirit of cooperation with the entire AA community, ITALYPAA provides tangible evidence that large numbers of young people are achieving lasting and comfortable sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. The commitment to Responsibility and the three legacies of AA, Recovery, Unity, and Service, are the guiding principles at ITALYPAA meetings, as they are throughout AA.

ITALYPAA will make every effort to cooperate with each AA area where the convention is held. It will also contribute regularly to the AA General Services office, as well as to the Area Services for facilities in the locations where the convention is held. ITALYPAA convention attendees are often the same alcoholics in the local AA service areas where the convention is or has been held; they may be found on duty in the General Services offices or in the Area Services of the regions where ITALYPAA is held.

As further evidence that youth meetings like those at ITALYPAA are part of AA as a whole, BILL W. at the AA World Convention in 1960 observed that the age of new members had dropped since he and Dr. Bob founded AA 25 years earlier.

In a letter to the International Conference of A.A. Youth in Philadelphia, dated June 15, 1969, Bill wrote: “…in recent years I have found no greater inspiration than knowing that the A.A. of tomorrow will be safe, and certainly magnificent, considering you who are the youngest generation of A.A. today.” Bill W.’s statement along with the 50-plus year history of A.A. Youth worldwide assures everyone that ITALYPAA continues and will continue to carry the life-giving message of Alcoholics Anonymous.