Young People's Groups in Alcoholics Anonymous began appearing around 1945 in Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, and now they can be found all across North America. In 1958, a meeting of young AA's from across the U.S. and Canada started what is now the International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA), and it has met on an annual basis ever since. At the 1960 AA Convention, Bill W. noted that the age of new members was much lower than when he and Dr. Bob founded AA 25 years earlier. In a letter to ICYPAA dated June 15, 1969, Bill wrote "... in recent years I have found nothing for greater inspiration than the knowledge that A.A. of tomorrow will be safe, and certainly magnificent, in the keeping of you who are the younger generation of A.A. today."

ICYPAA was founded for the purpose of providing a setting for an annual celebration of sobriety among young people in AA. Since its inception, a growing group of people, who at first would not consider themselves as "young people," has become regular attendees. The number of young people suffering from alcoholism who turn to AA for help is growing, and ICYPAA helps to carry AA's message of recovery to alcoholics of all ages. This meeting provides an opportunity for young AA's from all over the world to come together and share their experience, strength, and hope as members of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA members who attend an ICYPAA return home better prepared to receive young people who come to AA looking for a better way of life.

ICYPAA provides visible evidence that large numbers of young people are achieving a lasting and comfortable sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. The three legacies of AA -- Recovery, Unity, and Service -- are the backbone of ICYPAA, just as they are throughout AA. ICYPAA has a long history as an established AA conference. It regularly contributes to the AA General Service Office, as well as to the Area Service Structure in the local areas where it is held. ICYPAA and its attendees are also committed to reaching out to the newcomer, and to involvement in every other facet of AA service. ICYPAA participants can often be found serving at the national, state, area, and group levels. Newcomers are shown, by people their own age, that using AA principles in their daily lives and getting involved in AA service can have a significant impact on a lasting and comfortable sobriety.

From AAHistoryLovers Yahoo! Group

When AA was young, most of the members were not. The majority of those whose alcoholism had brought them to their knees were middle-aged. On the other hand, there has always been a sprinkling of younger alcoholics, who were regarded almost as curiosities; in fact, many of today's long-time members came in at a relatively youthful age -- or they wouldn't still be around! There were enough Young People in AA by 1950 that the First International Convention that year in Cleveland included a session for them! Then, as AA grew older in the '50's and '60's, more alcoholics began showing up in their early thirties, their twenties and even their teens.

There were several reasons for this trend. Awareness of alcoholism was much higher, so those with a problem sought help earlier. The stigma was steadily reduced. Drugs, as they became more available and more commonly used by young people, hastened their progression and ultimate desperation. Later on, treatment centers turned out large numbers of younger graduates. And here, as always in AA, the principle that "like attracts like" applied. When a youthful alcoholic hesitantly approached a group for the first time and saw another youth, he or she was more likely to stay. And when a kid -- rejecting his family (or rejected by them) and running with a street crowd -- found acceptance, a new way of life and evident joy in AA, his young alcoholic peers were sometimes attracted to see what had happened to him.

In 1985, one of the better known examples of AA's ability to turn a young person's life around was the story of June G., who came to Alcoholics Anonymous in Venice, California, in 1972 at the age of 13. The product of delinquent, violent, alcoholic parents June was pathologically suicidal as a child, and had been turned out onto the street before she had reached her teens because she had physically abused her mother as a result of her own drinking and drugging. Beaten up in a gang fight, the waif attempted suicide once more, and ended up in the hospital. From there, she was induced to go to an AA meeting. And she kept showing up, as she had nowhere else to go. "I hated the people there, and they avoided me," she says. Her appearance and dress, her language and her attitude were unacceptable. "It was a year before I put on shoes," June admits. But she kept coming, and gradually some of the adult members -- and particularly a caring sponsor -- took her under their wing. They virtually adopted her -- gave her a place to sleep, slowly changed the way she dressed, persuaded her to attend school, made her get some kind of work. June G. went on to high school, then the university, then law school -- and today practices as a public defender in the court system of the City of Los Angeles. A charming, lovely looking, smartly attired young lady of 26 (in 1985), June has 13 years of solid sobriety -- thanks to her only "family": Alcoholics Anonymous.

Typically, the path of most young people coming to. AA was not without obstacles. Many in the '60's told how they were ignored or scorned by older members at regular AA groups. "You're too young to be an alcoholic," they were told. "Go out and do some more drinking." One speaker at a young people's AA convention said, "As I was leaving one of my first meetings, I overheard an older member remark, 'I've spilled more booze than that young punk has drunk' He probably had, but it was the alcohol I had drunk -- not what he spilled -- that made my life unmanageable."

And even when a regular group made them feel welcome, the young people sometimes felt different for the same reasons that nonalcoholic youngsters feel different from adults; they dressed differently, talked differently, and had different fears and hang-ups.

Some helpful insights into young people in AA were gained from a strictly unofficial study done in 1976 by Darlene L., a college student and AA member in Southern California, assisted by Jerry F., the then Delegate. The project consisted of distributing questionnaires addressed to "under 30" AA's in that area. Darlene got 79 replies from which she drew her conclusions. The first discovery was that three out of four had a parent or other close relative who was an alcoholic (a much more startling fact in 1976 than today!). Many respondents had attended their first AA meeting as a child; in the company of a parent, so they knew where to come when they got into trouble themselves. The second discovery was that the young person's progression into serious alcoholism was very fast; within three years of beginning to drink regularly, they knew they had a problem. Similarly, the study revealed they realized their powerlessness over alcoholism very early, enabling them to overcome their denial syndrome. Most of the young alcoholics had also been drug users, greatly speeding up their reaching a bottom. And finally, when they came to AA, most identified with the alcoholism of the older members but had problems arising out of their identity as young people.

So the younger members in various parts of the country began banding together in their own groups. The first known group "for men and women under 35" was formed in January 1946 in Philadelphia. Within a year, it had about 30 members and an admirable record of sobriety. The same year, in October, a similar group was started in San Diego, California, but for young men only. It was followed within months by a young women's group. In 1947, a "35 and under" group began in New York City "with a mere handful." But three years later, it had 75 to 100 alcoholics.

A September 1961 Grapevine article on these "Youth Groups" states, "In some places, naturally enough, [they] were started with high hopes and flood-tide energy, but little stable or wise leadership. Groups turned into social clubs, or other Traditions were broken, and groups died." But in the long run, most of the groups survived and became viable, because they filled a need. "One girl admitted, 'I guess we just rebel more at our age, even in AA groups. And here, I don't have to try to compare my drinking with that of fellows who reminisce about bathtub gin or speakeasies.' And another fellow said, 'My young people' s group helps me with current problems. Because I'm young, I have lots of domestic, professional and other personal problems. Getting started in a career or starting a family are not problems most older members are now facing, so we younger ones can face them together and help one another. That's in addition to helping each other stay sober -- which always comes first.'"

Young people's groups were often regarded with suspicion by older groups. Not uncommonly, they were not included in the local service structure because they were "not AA" But the youngsters continued doing their thing and gradually came to be not only accepted but admired. In the 1961 article, the Milwaukee AA Central Office secretary is quoted as saying, "These young people's groups are the lifesavers of AA in our area. The service workers under 35 are where we get most of our best volunteers who keep our Central Office functioning. They're the ones we can count on most to take on Twelfth Step jobs, institutional work and public information tasks."

The young people's groups -- along with young people from regular AA groups -- banded together in 1958 to form the International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous, or ICYPAA (pronounced "Icky-Pa") for short. They held their first convention at Niagara Falls, New York, April 26-27, 1958. Less than a hundred people attended. The event has been held annually ever since in different cities from coast to coast, and the attendance now runs 3,000 or more, and are eagerly bid for by young AA's in the host regions and eagerly sought by the convention bureaus of host cities.

Predictably, the large conventions and the existence of ICYPAA caused more controversy within conventional AA than the individual young people's groups. It was immediately accused of being some kind of non-affiliated splinter group. Older AA's felt vaguely threatened. ICYPAA leaders kept insisting, "We're not a separate movement or a breaking-away from Alcoholics Anonymous. The Ninth Tradition says 'we may create service committees directly responsible to those they serve.' Our primary purpose is to carry the message to younger alcoholics."

The resistance from regular AA. groups has now generally disappeared. Trustees from the General Service Board (including its Chairman) now routinely and delightedly attend the annual ICYPAA conventions -- and sometimes the regional ones, too. Past members of young people's groups have become trusted servants, Delegates and even Trustees. (George D., past Pacific Regional Trustee, was a former member of the first young people's group in Los Angeles.) The Conventions are very large supporters of G.S.O. At the invitation of the General Service Board, ICYPAA leaders have attended a Board sharing session, and they gave extremely valuable assistance in arranging subjects to be interviewed and filmed for AA's documentary film targeting young people. These are the future of AA.