2023-2026 Cycle: Survey on Step Working Material |
We are embarking on this survey so that the World Board can hear from the wide world of NA about what members want, need, and don’t want in new or revised Step working material.
Why Are We Doing This?
Over the years, the Fellowship has discussed many different ideas about new or revised material for working the Steps. A number of those ideas have been prioritized in the 2018, 2020, and 2023 CAR surveys.
The 2023 World Service Conference had consensus on the focus for the new recovery literature project this cycle:
Step Working Guide Literature
Why Are We Doing This?
Over the years, the Fellowship has discussed many different ideas about new or revised material for working the Steps. A number of those ideas have been prioritized in the 2018, 2020, and 2023 CAR surveys.
The 2023 World Service Conference had consensus on the focus for the new recovery literature project this cycle:
Step Working Guide Literature
- If the SWG were edited and simplified, it could satisfy three of the prioritized Ideas [from the CAR survey].
These are:
-
- Step working guide aimed at members not new to working the Steps
- Step working booklet focused mainly on Steps 1–3, aimed primarily at new members and those in treatment and drug courts
- Revise and simplify the Step Working Guides
The WSC draft minutes explain that this cycle, World Services will: “start asking questions about what people want to see about working the Steps that includes all of ideas: for people who are new and not new, whether we revise existing material or create new material, whether we create shorter pieces for people in treatment. There are a number of ideas that the Fellowship has that would all be under this one topic.”
But We Already Have Material for Working the Steps
Yes, we do have material for working the Steps. In fact, soon that material will be bundled into one boxed set: the NA Survival Kit, which will include the section for each Step from the Basic Text chapter “How It Works,” the corresponding chapter from It Works: How and Why, and the chapter from The NA Step Working Guides, with the questions numbered rather than bulleted.
Nonetheless, many members have expressed desires or identified needs for more or different material. Being a spiritual not religious program means that recovering in NA is not a dogmatic endeavor. People take a variety of approaches to working the Steps. NA didn’t even have a published Step working guide until 1998, so most everyone who’s been clean in NA more than 26 years has worked the Steps through some other approach. Our literature explains:
"Recovery is a highly personal experience. As sponsors, we have each developed our own way of working through the steps with our sponsees. Some of us utilize dictionaries, as well as the various tools of the program such as the Basic Text, It Works: How and Why, and The Narcotics Anonymous Step Working Guides. We may ask sponsees to write about certain passages from these texts and other NA literature. . . .
If we are willing to make the effort, we can find a way to work the steps and understand the NA program."
But We Already Have Material for Working the Steps
Yes, we do have material for working the Steps. In fact, soon that material will be bundled into one boxed set: the NA Survival Kit, which will include the section for each Step from the Basic Text chapter “How It Works,” the corresponding chapter from It Works: How and Why, and the chapter from The NA Step Working Guides, with the questions numbered rather than bulleted.
Nonetheless, many members have expressed desires or identified needs for more or different material. Being a spiritual not religious program means that recovering in NA is not a dogmatic endeavor. People take a variety of approaches to working the Steps. NA didn’t even have a published Step working guide until 1998, so most everyone who’s been clean in NA more than 26 years has worked the Steps through some other approach. Our literature explains:
"Recovery is a highly personal experience. As sponsors, we have each developed our own way of working through the steps with our sponsees. Some of us utilize dictionaries, as well as the various tools of the program such as the Basic Text, It Works: How and Why, and The Narcotics Anonymous Step Working Guides. We may ask sponsees to write about certain passages from these texts and other NA literature. . . .
If we are willing to make the effort, we can find a way to work the steps and understand the NA program."
Sponsorship, The Sponsorship Relationship: Developing It and Sustaining It
In Summary
World Services is surveying the Fellowship to determine what resources will be most helpful to members in working the Steps.
If you have resources you use, please send them our way! wb@na.org.
The results of this survey will help shape the recovery literature project plan in the 2026 Conference Approval Track material. If you want to stay up to date on the survey results and other World Services projects, subscribe to NAWS News: www.na.org/subscribe.
Thank you for helping with this. Please spread the word.
In Summary
World Services is surveying the Fellowship to determine what resources will be most helpful to members in working the Steps.
If you have resources you use, please send them our way! wb@na.org.
The results of this survey will help shape the recovery literature project plan in the 2026 Conference Approval Track material. If you want to stay up to date on the survey results and other World Services projects, subscribe to NAWS News: www.na.org/subscribe.
Thank you for helping with this. Please spread the word.