Shared problems: Have 12 Step programs run amok? A notice in an Elgin Community College hallway announces a 12 Step meeting ”For All Compulsive Problems.” Can a single group deal with ”Eating, Drinking, Working, Spending, Smoking, Drugs, Gambling, Anxiety, and Relationships”?
”We do not have enough people in any single category to make a viable meeting,” says Mich Barbezat, Project STEP Director at ECC, where weekly meetings draw from two to 20 participants. ”A separate meeting for each category would be ideal; however, we do find that the way it is, it seems to work very well.”
The strictly confidential meetings are only one of the offerings of ECC`s award-winning Project STEP (Students Teaching and Encouraging Prevention)
program to prevent drug and alcohol abuse on campus. After receiving feedback from fellow students, Project STEP`s trained ”peer helpers” organized the Friday noon gatherings.
