About AA sponsorship, sobriety milestones, the 12 steps, and how this platform works.
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 a sobriety date?
A sobriety date — sometimes called a sobriety birthday in AA — is the date a person last had a drink. It marks the beginning of their recovery and is used to track milestones. Work the 12 Steps helps sponsors remember milestones and anniversaries, so they can be there at the right moment.
What are sobriety chips or medallions?
Sobriety chips are physical tokens given to AA members at milestones: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, and annually thereafter. Receiving a chip at a meeting is a meaningful moment — a tangible acknowledgment of the work someone has done. Work the 12 Steps follows traditional chip timing so sponsors can mark each one.
What are the sobriety chip colors?
Traditional chip colors vary slightly by group and region, but commonly: silver (newcomer), red (30 days), gold (60 days), green (90 days), purple (6 months), bronze (9 months), and a bronze medallion for 1 year and beyond. Work the 12 Steps displays each sponsee's current chip color visually, so sponsors always know where someone stands.
How are sobriety milestones calculated?
Milestones are calculated from the sobriety date forward: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months (180 days), 9 months (270 days), and then annually by year. Work the 12 Steps helps sponsors see them coming, so they can acknowledge the milestone at the right moment.
What is Work the 12 Steps?
Work the 12 Steps is a sponsorship support platform for people in AA and other 12-step programs. It gives sponsors a dashboard to track their sponsees' sobriety dates, step progress, and milestones — and helps sponsees stay connected and accountable. It is not a social network, a streak tracker, or a gamified sobriety app. It is quiet infrastructure for the sponsorship relationship.
Is it free?
Yes. Work the 12 Steps is free for sponsors and sponsees. No credit card. No catch. The platform is not built to extract value from people in recovery.
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 replace meetings or the program?
No — and it never will. Work the 12 Steps is a practical aid, not a substitute for the actual work of recovery. It is designed to support the sponsor relationship, not replace it. The app should disappear into the relationship. Meetings, step work, sponsorship, and community remain the foundation.
How do I get access?
We are currently in private beta. Request access on the homepage and we'll be in touch. We're opening access carefully — to sponsors, sponsees, and recovery professionals who want to help us build this right.