Our Mission

PAL provides hope, through education and support, to parents of addicted loved ones.

 

 

 

 

Who is PAL?

Parents of Addicted Loved Ones (PAL) is a national non-profit that provides hope through education and support to parents of adults dealing with substance use disorder. Families of the addicted are often collateral damage in the war on drugs, sacrificing their health, their finances and their relationships in an effort to save their addicted loved one.

PAL provides the evidence-based education parents need to encourage their loved one’s recovery without enabling their addiction; and the peer-to-peer support they want to face the challenges of the addiction in a group that understands and does not judge. Weekly meetings are held at no charge across the country.

PAL offers problem-solving group meetings to parents, family members, and friends who are impacted by the collateral effects of addiction. Using an evidence-based model of parents helping parents, the PAL program provides addiction education and tools for developing healthy family communication in an understanding, nonjudgmental, and caring environment.

The PAL curriculum teaches about the disease and cycle of addiction and how changing and improving family relationships impacts not only family members, but also the addicted individual. Participants can attend as few or as many group sessions as they wish, at no charge, nor is there a requirement to enroll in services.

Programs

WEEKLY GROUP MEETINGS
The flagship of the organization, weekly meetings are held at no cost to participants, and are led by trained peer volunteer facilitators—all of whom have experienced the addiction of a loved one. Using a parents-helping-parents model, the educational component consists of nine core lessons, supplemental lessons, and occasional guest speakers. Various topics of addiction and recovery are covered with the goal of building behavioral and communication tools that families need when dealing with the stressful situations they face when their adult child suffers from addiction. Individuals can attend as long as they need support and want to offer support to other families.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION SEMINARS
In addition to free weekly meetings, PAL offers free training opportunities for the public, from in-person seminars with experts in the treatment and recovery field to Facebook Live events that can be viewed real-time when participants can ask questions of the presenters. The Facebook events can also be watched anytime afterwards at the viewer’s convenience. Topics covered include mental health, dealing with the holidays, suicide, finding joy, letting go of guilt, alternative medicines, how to help your family heal and more. Most presentations can be found on the PAL Facebook page or on our YouTube channel.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
PAL’s dedicated volunteers are also available to speak to local service organizations and participate in trade shows and local events to help others learn about the hope available through PAL. Volunteers also staff a phone line for those seeking information from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mountain Time. Parents willing to open up PAL groups in their community attend an in-depth online training program to learn the skills needed to facilitate a meeting in their community. These parents do not have to be experts in the field, nor must they have their own lives in order – just a willingness to serve.

Find a Meeting

If there are no meetings in your area, we’d love to offer a meeting near you! PAL provides free training, a mentor, and all the supplies needed to begin a PAL Meeting in your community.

 

FIND A MEETING

PAL gave us the strength to stop the cycle of enabling.

– a PAL Parent