Stuck at home with social distancing? Hop on the phone and join WFS President/CEO as she delves deep into the topic of self-imaging in recovery.

Workshop Description: Due to the impact of addiction on multiple areas of life, many people with a substance use disorder feel a strong loss of identity when they try to make changes to their substance use. We will explore why this is so, and share some simple methods to help the recovering person redefine their self-image to one of an empowered, capable, and sober individual.

Date & Time: Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET

Presenter: Adrienne Miller, Women for Sobriety

Link to Seminar: cigna.com/substanceuse

Call-in number: US/CAN Toll Free: 1 (866) 770-3260    Int’l Toll: 1 (509) 844-9004

Read the handout [PDF]

• CDC Mental Health and Coping
• SAMHSA Coping with Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks
• SAMHSA Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health: Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation During an Infectious Disease Outbreak

• Face-to-Face Meetings – Since WFS in-person meetings are held in a wide geographical area, there is no single recommendation at this time for whether or not local meetings should be continued. We refer to the competent women of each area to decide what is best for them, based on WHO and federal CDC recommendations, that of their local health authorities, and their own personal needs and health considerations. You may wish to contact the Certified Moderator in your area before making the drive to your local meeting. Please do not attend meetings if you are experiencing symptoms or have recently been exposed to someone who is sick.
• WFS Online – Our online peer-support forum will continue to operate and be available to women 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at https://wfsonline.org. Online chat meetings will continue daily as scheduled. I am working with our online volunteers to expedite the implementation of online video meetings in light of recent events. Check in on the forum regularly as that project develops.
• WFS Bookstore – WFS will continue to take online bookstore orders and fulfill them on schedule, unless local health authorities require the closure of local businesses or restrict local travel. I consider our life-saving work to be essential and I am committed to continuing to bring hope and New Life to the women seeking it.
• WFS Office – Fortunately, WFS has made many updates to procedures that will allow most operations to continue through telecommuting by all employees. Emails and phones will continue to be answered during normal business hours.
• WFS Annual Weekend Conference 2020 – Since the situation is rapidly-developing, it is uncertain what affect this might have on our annual event in June. The Conference Management Team is continuing to plan for the event, and we are also exploring a number of contingency plans. The Board of Directors will be evaluating special policy adaptations that may be indicated in this area.

Autumn Update

December 2019

2019 Highlights

• Launched customized new chat room for online chat meetings.
• Modernized the WFS Online Community with new software.
• Increased conference attendance by 20%.
• Conducted outreach at three major national conferences for addictions professionals.
• Launched new Friends of WFS software to streamline donor, volunteer, and event management.
• Relocated office, downsizing to save on overhead and channel more funds to empowering women to overcome addiction.

WFS Office Relocation

In September 2019, after much sorting, organizing, purging, and packing, the WFS office completed its first move in over 35 years! Thanks in large part to outsourcing of our literature production tasks, we were able to downsize our square footage by half. This is part of an overall effort to decrease overhead so we can spend your generous donations where they really count – developing the New Life Program and empowering women to overcome addiction!

Our “new” building is a classic Quakertown structure that is being restored – check out those amazing original hardwood floors! Shown in the picture is our streamlined bookstore and shipping department, with a circle of chairs that we use to hold our weekly on-site WFS meetings.

Replay

Soberful Podcast
Listen as one of our 2019 conference featured presenters, Veronica Valli, interviews WFS President/CEO Adrienne Miller about the New Life Program.

Beyond Addiction Show
Go to Episode 32 for another in-depth interview with President/CEO Adrienne Miller about the New Life Program.

KYW Newsradio
Quick tips for navigating the holidays sober.

Personal Stories

From the WFS Blog

HOME AT LAST
…There is nothing special about me, I just realize the importance of putting in the effort to get what I want and what I am worthy of. Because of Women for Sobriety, I am doing what I dreamed of as a child and countless things I never would have dreamed of. Read More

NOTICING THE JOY
I recall feeling like I was going to lose my mind around my one year mark, but then SO MANY people told me that was absolutely normal. I recall the day that I realized that I didn’t know how many sober days I had accumulated… I actually had to count. I cried for the joy of that ~ it was my new normal and that day I knew I had found my New Life! Read More

New Meetings

Maplewood, MN: Wednesdays – 7 pm
For Licensed Healthcare Professionals Only

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico: Wednesdays – 10:00 am

Everett, WA: Thursdays – 6:30 pm

Patterson, CA: Saturdays – 10:00 am

Chandler, AZ: Saturdays – 10:00 am

Albuquerque, NM: Wednesdays – 5:30 pm

Save the Date!

Auction Coordinator Needed!
Do you look forward to the annual fundraising auction at conference each year? Help us carry on the tradition by volunteering to coordinate the event! If you are interested in taking the lead on this vital fundraising project, please email admin@womenforsobriety.org today!

Call for Presentations Available
Learn more about being a conference presenter on our conference page.

What WFS Does

The WFS New Life Program is a self-help program that promotes behavioral changes through positive reinforcement, cognitive strategies, letting the body help and dynamic group involvement.

Women for Sobriety meetings, also frequently referred to as “face-to-face” groups, are available in the United States and Canada. WFS meetings are limited to women who are personally engaged in recovery from problematic drug and/or alcohol use.

WFS Online is a free, open forum for women overcoming their addictions using the New Life Program. WFS Online consists of a 24/7 message board, as well as online text chat meetings.

WFS provides Phone Support via women who have volunteered to be phone contacts for women who may not have access to other WFS peer support or who wish to develop a more individualized support relationship.

WFS hosts an Annual Weekend Conference. This retreat-style weekend offers workshops, presentations, and WFS meetings from Friday evening to mid-day Sunday.

Your year-end gift will allow WFS to continue providing services to women in recovery! Thank You!

Donate Now

Financial and other information about Women for Sobriety’s purpose, programs, and activities can be obtained by contacting WFS at PO Box 618, Quakertown, PA 18951; 215-536-8026; or contact@womenforsobriety.org, or for residents of the following states, as stated below. Registration in a state does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation of WFS by the state. CO: Secretary of State, 303-894-2860, www.sos.state.co.us/ re: Reg.No 20183006027. FL: CH53986 A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. IL: Contracts and reports regarding WFS are on file with the Illinois Attorney General. MD: For the cost of postage and copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State. MI: MICS No.CS 58804. MS: The official registration and financial information of Women for Sobriety, Inc., can be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office by calling 1-888-236-6167. NJ: INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6588 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/charfrm.htm. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. NC: Financial information about this organization and copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-814-5400. NV: The state of incorporation of WFS is PA. PA: The official registration and financial information for WFS may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. WA: From the Charities Division, Office of the Secretary of State, State of Washington, Olympia, WA 98504-0422, 1-800-332-4483, or www.sos.wa.gov/charities. WV: West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, West Virginia 25305. CONTRIBUTIONS ARE DEDUCTIBLE FOR FEDERAL INCOME TAX PURPOSES IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAW.

Check out our newest updated offering – Reflections for Growth! Originally written by WFS New Life Program founder Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick as 12 short monthly booklets, this compiled volume contains the full year of daily meditations. It has been lightly revised to increase relatability for today’s recovering woman and a different Acceptance Statement (the foundation of the New Life Program) added to each day.

Also check out our Moving Sale! Due to the deterioration of the building where the office is currently located, WFS will be moving by the end of September 2019. There is a lot to do to prepare for the move, including reducing our inventory. Check out these great deals:

Half Price – All CDs & DVDs

$1.00 – All Legacy Literature booklet & the Woman on the Mountain enamel pin

$5.00 – T-Shirts & Tote Bags

FREE – On the Road to Sell Recovery

We have posted our 2018 tax document, the IRS 990, on our Governance page. WFS is committed to fiscal transparency and we are happy to make this document available to all of our donors. We know that it is a long and complicated document, so we encourage anyone with specific questions to contact me directly at admin@womenforsobriety.org and I will do our best to explain! You can also review our 2018 highlights on our 2018 Annual Report, which is a little more reader friendly. Thanks for your support – WFS could not exist without the generosity of our donors!

Enthusiastically Yours!
Adrienne Miller
President/CEO
Women for Sobriety, Inc.

Hello Competent Women!

Just a quick check-in to let you know that we are still here, working hard to bring the New Life Program to the world. Pretty much all our time here at the office is being spent on preparing for conference, which is only 2 weeks away! The tote bags and other supplies are coming in, signage and programs sent to the printers, and a record number of women have registered.

That’s right – we are breaking the record this year! Our two biggest years have been 134 women in 2006 and 2009. As I write this, we have 142 women registered to join us in Center Valley, PA, in June. I think the hard work of the Conference Planning Workgroup has a whole lot to do with that. Please join me in thanking these generous volunteers for donating so much of their 4C energy to make this happen!

The Teddy Bear Challenge is still going strong, and all of the other boring business-end tasks are still getting accomplished. We have 3 volunteer teams meeting over Memorial Day weekend – there’s no time to rest when you are busy saving lives!

Well, that’s the last bit of my energy left from this week, but don’t worry, I am still…

Enthusiastically Yours!
Adrienne Miller
President/CEO
Women for Sobriety, Inc.

Hello Competent Women!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Conference!

Supplies, auction donations, and teddy bears are pouring in! One of our office volunteer took me to BJ’s, a local warehouse store, so we could stock up on drinks, plates, and napkins for our Thursday night pizza party and of course plenty of coffee, tea, and cups for our hospitality station in Donahue Hall. We are poised to break a record this year with attendance. We have already had 126 women register – with more than a week left for all you last-minute types.

Now don’t be too last-minute! Even though we have our special Late Registration period again this year, there are certain disadvantages to using this option. The most obvious is that you will end up paying 10% more! Yikes! We may also not be able to accommodate special dietary or similar requests for late registrations, and supplies such as our great conference totes (plus goodies!) may run out. And since we are poised to overflow Donahue Hall this year, late registers will likely be sleeping in another building. This may not sound like a big deal, but I’ll warn you that the coffee pot is going to be at Donahue (native Seattlite speaking here, lol).

Joy of Transformation

Many women are curious about this year’s Joy of Transformation event on Saturday at the conference. The agenda is coming along quite nicely and we have a good mix of time for casual socializing over a family style meal, entertainment with the fabulous Karen Drucker, and a chance to get involved with a dance floor and Voice Your Joy karaoke hosted by our own PerditaX. We’ll also have an update from each of our strategic planning Management Teams, a moving video by the daughter of one of our participants (I cry every time I watch a new revision – it just keeps getting better), and our first ever Paddle Raise fundraiser.

Speaking of the Teddy Bear Challenge…

We are at almost $10,000!!! More than 70 women have donated $5, $10, $20… up to $1,500 from our biggest TBC donor! All donors (and anyone else who requests an entry) are being entered into the drawing to adopt one of our precious custom bears. WFS Online members can see the full lineup in the Everyday Living forum.

Don’t want a bear but still want to donate? We can accommodate that, too! Simply request to be excluded from the drawing when you make your donation. Alternately, winners will also have the option of donating their bear to a local domestic violence shelter for a child in need of comfort.

Boring Business Stuff

Don’t worry, because even in the midst of all this excitement, I am still making sure that the business of WFS is being conducted faithfully. We’re continuing to fill orders from our bookstore and requests for supplies from our local f2f groups in a timely manner. We are still in the process of migrating to our new contact management system, which will help us work with volunteers and donors more efficiently. We’ve also revised the registration process of the WFS Online Community to decrease the demand on our volunteer registration team and, hopefully, increase the accessibility of our life-saving program to women when they need it.

Did you know that non-profits get an extra month to file their taxes? Of course, that’s kind of a misnomer because we don’t actually file taxes, being a nonprofit. But we do have to file an annual report to the IRS summarizing our activities. It’s called a 990 and you can find our 2017 one on our Governance page. The extra month means that we get a special deal because accountants can put us off until after the main tax season ends. So of course I have been busy fetching information for our accountant so that he can get our 2018 990 done. Don’t worry, we will post the 2018 form as soon as it is ready!

Well that’s about it. As usual, I know there’s more, so check in next time to see what I’ll remember! I am so excited for the growth of the program that we are already seeing, and we couldn’t do it without supporters like you! Thank you for taking the time to read!

Enthusiastically Yours!
Adrienne
Women for Sobriety, Inc.

Hello Competent Women!

Thanks for checking in! My apologies for being MIA – first I was in Florida at the ASAM conference, and then I got sick – again, ugh (I think I might be allergic to spring in PA). It’s late and I’ve been working on financials all day so I don’t have a lot of time, but I didn’t want to let you down 3 weeks in a row! So here is the whirlwind tour of what’s up at WFS:

ASAM Annual Conference

I had a great weekend with our Volunteer Coordinator Lisa – that’s her stuffing packets in our booth! (Sorry for the blur – I am terrible at taking pictures.) She picked things up so quickly and we were unstoppable telling all the addiction medicine specialists about our great program. They were very excited to hear about our free option for their patients and our extensive online support.

We also stood out for being abstinence-based but also medication-friendly. That’s right: for those of you who aren’t aware, WFS is somewhat unique in this way. We believe that addiction is tough enough to overcome, and if women and their doctors’ think medication will help, then by all means it should be used.

We gave away all 47 of the physician Professional Sample Kits that we brought, and got a mailing list of 25 more to send out.

WFS Annual Weekend Conference

For our own annual conference, Early Bird Registration closed strong with 89 registrants – that’s up 15% from last year’s Early Bird period. The number today is up to 102 – wow!

Those of you on our postal mailing list may have noticed on this year’s conference flyer that we mentioned that WFS is on the move. This year will be our last year at the beloved DeSales University. Now don’t worry, because we have a great place picked out for 2020. Keep an eye on your inbox for the big announcement!

I’m also very proud to report that we were able to offer a work scholarship to every woman that applied this year. That’s right, we’re bringing 14 women to conference who might not otherwise be able to attend. It helps them, it helps me because I have more hands on deck, and it helps everyone in WFS because we are stronger together!

Teddy Bear Challenge

We received our first 2 bears in the mail today! They will be lovingly stored until conference, when a drawing of all our Teddy Bear Challenge donors’ names will be completed and the bears re-homed. The latest totals are 52 donors and $6,530 donated – that’s almost as much as we raised in all of last year’s challenge, and we still have over a month left!

New Literature Coming

One of our office volunteers has been hard at work getting our new Men’s Collection formatted for printing. Thanks to the hard work of one of our Men for Sobriety groups at Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center in Chicago, IL, four of our seminal pieces have been adapted for men. These include the Program Booklet, the Beginner’s Booklet, the New Life Diary, and the Levels of Recovery. These great guys have truly gone above and beyond in this task. They didn’t just change the pronouns; they also provided some male-specific examples to make the material even more relevant. Let’s hear it for the boys!

Next up is our Reflections for Growth daily reader series. Part of our strategic plan is to outsource our production and fulfillment services. To accomplish this, we need to combine some of our smaller booklets into bigger pieces. Members of the Materials & Literature Management Team have been hard at work reviewing the daily reflection booklets and adding a Statement for each day. The edits are in, and now our trusty volunteer is formatting away. We can’t wait to premiere this updated work at this year’s conference!

Alright, folks, that’s it for me today. Please let me know what you think of these exciting changes and feel free to share your ideas on how we can bring the WFS to even more women! (And a few good men, too!)

Enthusiastically Yours!
Adrienne Miller
President/CEO
Women for Sobriety, Inc.

Hello Competent Women!

Quick post today to show you the beautiful full-color brochures that just came in this week. This is a real milestone for WFS. Can you believe that in over 40 years, WFS has never before had an official color brochure? I can’t wait to give these away to all the addiction doctor’s at next week’s outreach event, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) National Conference.

Our office volunteers have done an amazing job helping me get ready for the event, stamping free copies of literature and preparing our special Professional Sample Kits as giveaways. Thanks, volunteers!

WFS Annual Weekend Conference

Conference plans continue to move along quite nicely. Don’t forget to register this weekend before the Early Bird registration period ends – automatically save $20 when you register before midnight (Eastern time) on Sunday night, 3/31/19!

Check back next week for a photo of our exhibit booth at ASAM!

Enthusiastically Yours!
Adrienne Miller
President/CEO
Women for Sobriety, Inc.

Hello Competent Women!

Here’s this week’s happenings at WFS:

Teddy Bear Challenge

BunnyH shared that we are up to 28 bears being customized and donated to this year’s Teddy Bear Challenge drawing. But we only have 13 donors so far! I guess everyone is just going to get 2 bears each… unless you donate today! We are off to a great start financially with $2,600 of our $10,000 goal already collected. But what about the bears? BunnyH reminds us that we have…

• 834 WFS Online members who have logged on to the forum in the last month and over 2,000 in the last 6 months.
• 72 in-person WFS meetings across the US and Canada
• 13 weekly chat meetings
• over 100 WFS Online members who take the Daily Pledge to stay sober every day

She has challenged us to spread the word to find 100 donors. (Our most fruitful year of the Teddy Bear Challenge we had well over that many.) Will you help us get there?

American Society of Addiction Medicine

Our office volunteers have been hard at work this week helping me get ready for my upcoming trip to the ASAM national conference in early April. We are putting together some great Professional Sample Kits to hand out. These will contain sample literature and provider education articles to improve physician knowledge of what the New Life Program is all about. They will also contain a variety of outreach items like brochures, business cards, and bookmarks that the providers can give to their patients when they tell them about WFS.

If you are planning to attend the ASAM conference, please stop by booth 529 to get your goodies!

New Software

The WFS Board of Directors met this week and, among other things, approved another major software migration for WFS. NeonCRM is an all-inclusive software solution for non-profits. The things that it will be helping us with include donor and volunteer management, task automation, and event registration. My favorite part about it is that it will allow us to track service delivery at a level that we have never done before.

I know I am showing my true nerd colors (I consider “nerd” a compliment, don’t worry), but I can’t wait to get the new system implemented. It will make us much more efficient so we can focus our energy where it really counts – helping women! And it will help us demonstrate the effectiveness and growth of our program, too.

Well that’s all I have to report this week. Time for me to head off to a Management Team meeting!

Enthusiastically Yours,
Adrienne Miller
President/CEO
Women for Sobriety, Inc.