Al-Anon Family Groups is a worldwide mutual-aid fellowship offering a program of recovery to the families and friends of alcoholics, whether or not the alcoholic recognizes a problem or seeks help.

Al-Anon was founded in 1951 by Lois W. — wife of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. — and Anne B., who organized the informal family gatherings that had grown up alongside AA meetings into a fellowship of their own. It adopted AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions with minimal alteration, changing the Twelfth Step to carry the message to others rather than to alcoholics. The two fellowships remain organizationally separate. Alateen, the component for younger relatives and friends, began in California in 1957. The fellowship's service arm is a 🏷️#nonprofit headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Meetings are small, and members share experience rather than give advice. The program's governing premise is that a member's recovery is their own and does not wait on the drinker to change — participants work their own Steps rather than plan interventions. Al-Anon charges no dues, is self-supporting through voluntary member contributions, declines outside funding, and treats anonymity as a structural principle rather than a courtesy.

Evidence on effectiveness depends on what is being measured. Studies report improved abstinence and marital satisfaction when a spouse attends Al-Anon while the drinker attends AA; a 1999 clinical review found the program largely ineffective at moving an unmotivated drinker into treatment, a goal for which Community Reinforcement and Family Training performed substantially better. That gap sits consistently with Al-Anon's own framing rather than against it — the program does not offer itself as a method for changing another person.