About sponsorship, the Twelve Steps, and how this platform works — for AA and other programs.
What is a sponsor in AA?
A sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous is someone who has worked the 12 steps and helps guide another person (the sponsee) through the program. Sponsors share their experience, strength, and hope — and walk through the steps one-on-one with their sponsees. The relationship is built on trust, honesty, and accountability.
What is a sponsee?
A sponsee is a person working the 12 steps of AA who is being guided by a sponsor. The sponsee typically calls their sponsor regularly, works through the steps together, attends meetings, and follows their sponsor's suggestions. The goal is sobriety and spiritual growth.
How does sponsorship work in AA?
A newcomer asks someone further along in the program — usually a person they relate to at meetings — to be their sponsor. The sponsor agrees and they begin working the steps together. The relationship typically involves regular phone calls, step work sessions, and the sponsor sharing their personal experience with the program. There is no formal structure: every sponsor-sponsee relationship is different, but all are grounded in the same principles.
What are the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous?
The 12 steps are a spiritual program of recovery first outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous. They involve admitting powerlessness over alcohol, seeking spiritual help, taking a personal inventory, making amends for past harms, and helping others. They are worked sequentially with a sponsor, typically over several months, and are the foundation of most recovery programs worldwide.
What is Work the 12 Steps?
Work the 12 Steps is a sponsorship support platform for people in AA and other Twelve Step programs. It gives sponsors a place to track their sponsees' sobriety dates, step progress, and milestones — and helps sponsees stay connected and accountable. It quietly holds the sponsorship relationship — nothing louder.
Is this just for AA?
No. Work the 12 Steps is for anyone working a Twelve Step program — AA, NA, GA, OA, Al-Anon, Cocaine Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, and others. The Steps are the Steps. If you have a sponsor or sponsees, this is for you.
Is it always free?
Yes. Free for sponsors, sponsees, and recovery friends — and it stays that way. This was built as a service to recovery, not a business that needs people in recovery to make money.
Why does this exist?
It comes from one person's experience getting sober and wanting to help the next person. Read the story behind it →
Who's behind this?
A sponsor/sponsee in recovery. One person who found his way through the Steps and wanted to help the next person. Not a tech company, not investors, no data harvesting.
What information will you collect about me?
Deliberately little. First name and last initial only — no full name, no birthday, no address. Your phone number is your identity anchor so the right people can reach you. See our Privacy Policy for the details.
Is it private?
Yes. Privacy is foundational to recovery culture. The platform does not share your information, does not sell data, and is not connected to any social media platform. What happens in sponsorship stays in sponsorship.
What is recovery lineage?
Recovery lineage is the chain of sponsorship connecting you to the founding of AA. Your sponsor had a sponsor, who had a sponsor — and that chain goes back through the decades to the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Work the 12 Steps makes that chain visible. It is one of the most meaningful features of the platform, honoring the continuity of recovery passed person to person.
Does it track meetings?
Yes. You can log your meetings and keep your meeting history in one place, with dates and times. For sponsors, it's a simple way to see your people's attendance at a glance.
I'm not sponsoring anyone right now — how does this help me?
Plenty. Track your own step work, log your meetings, stay connected to your sponsor and recovery friends, and see your place in the lineage. You don't need to be sponsoring anyone to use it.
How does this help me as a sponsor?
It keeps everything clear when you're carrying several people. See where each person is in their step work, with dates and timestamps, so nothing slips. Less held in your head, more attention for the person in front of you.
I don't want technology to be part of my recovery.
Understandable — and this is not a pocket sponsor, and not AI pretending to be your sponsor. We get sick alone and we get well together, so this points you toward people, not screens. It remembers the dates so you can pick up the phone. The technology disappears; the call to another person is the point.
How do I get started?
Create a free account from the homepage and you can begin right away. It's open to anyone working a twelve-step program — sponsors, sponsees, and recovery friends alike.