Reflection Paper On The Community Meeting

For the community meeting, I had decided to attend an AA (Alcohol Anonymous) meeting in Jamestown. From the time I had got inside and during part of the meeting I was observing I felt extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t understand what made me feel this way, but little by little those feelings had subsided and I went to focus on what was happening. Being inside the meeting it made me feel like I didn’t belong. Most of all, I had felt like I had to be part of this “subgroup” in order to fit in. I knew that I couldn’t be someone who I wasn’t and I wasn’t there to compare or judge others. Some people continue to look at me with the “death stare” and that made me feel some anxiety as well. The death stare is when a person continues to look directly …show more content…
Before starting people have the choice to sit wherever they want. While I was there, I had sat in the back of the room to observe everyone around me, yet it had felt as if the spotlight was on me. It was as if everyone in that room already knew that I wasn’t there for being an alcoholic but as an imposter for checking out their darkest secrets.
The meeting first starts off as people introducing who they are, which I had noticed lighten up the room a bit more. This had impacted the room because it was as if everyone instantly knew that they weren’t alone. There were some people that had shared their personal stories and their experiences while being impacted by alcohol. After they had shared, they then mentioned how they decided to join AA and how much different their life has been since attending meetings and having an sponsor. Therefore, the purpose of an AA meeting is open for others to join and want to do something about their alcohol problem, or if they know someone who had been affected by it. It encourages others solely to get to an improved environment than to where they were before being impacted by alcohol. The audience had a diverse …show more content…
They had described people that have an alcohol problem, they have a disability. I felt as if people could “glimpse right through me” and know that I was there to seek more knowledge about this group. Furthermore, since I have a different societal and cultural level compared to them, it had also separated me and those around. Mainly as I knew that between me and those in the room had similar but different values of what we believed in. I’m pleased to know that the community has both open and closed meetings since it helps those know they aren’t alone or if someone can come to understand more about this population. Overall, this assignment affects my social work profession in a positive way knowing that if someone I was working someone that had or currently has an alcohol problem and needed an extra support I would know that the AA group would be a suitable resource for them to attend. Moreover, it can impact my social work profession by not knowing what the statistics are of the AA meetings. As a social worker, we would have to implement how the progress of others are doing, what needs to be improved and overall how effective this program is. I know it would be difficult for a social worker to know specific information if they have open meetings every so often, and when it’s closed no one from the outside community is allowed in. Overall, it would affect the