MOVING NEWS

Please join us at our Annual Membership Meeting Sunday July 13 at 1:00 pm. 

Make your voice heard!

After over 46 years of renting space at 2012 14th Ave S, we have been blessed with ownership of a  home of our own. We can put down roots, make improvements to the building, continue growth in our Member Services and to the Birmingham recovery community as a whole. Since the old Nabor's house burned in 2003, we've not had the rooms needed for multiple different recovery meetings going on simultaneously, and also have room for our supporting JAFI Clubhouse Members to fellowship. The JAFI Clubhouse Coffee Bar will soon be open again-and better than ever- with an improved menu coming soon. 

In addition to the 12 Step meeting spaces, and the Clubhouse Coffee Bar, there are breakout rooms available for one-to-one step work at any time. Groups will be able to rent space for special events without interfering with the regularly scheduled meetings. For the first time in over four decades we have ADA compliant bathrooms and entrances for handicapped guests to use.. That is something to celebrate! We will be making plans (and fundraising) for outdoor space improvements in the coming months.

"Is it in Avondale or Lakeview?" It's in Forrest Park 3513 7TH AVE S, but only blocks away from the North Lakeview Industrial District, Highland Park, Five Points and the North Avondale neighborhoods.  There are three restaurants within two blocks,, as well as the Lakeview and Avondale dining offerings close by. Don't forget, "The Pig" is just over the hill!

Our goal is to be officially moved in as of June 24. After that, all meetings will be at the JAFI Clubhouse's new home at 3513 7th Ave S. The meetings remain exactly the same as scheduled at 2012 14th Ave S, with more opportunities for expansion and diversity. Our moving days are June 22 and 23rd. Bring your pick-up and help out!

Magic! No, not really, but almost! The Addiction Recovery Foundation has given JAFI the ownership of our clubhouse building. In March of this year they made a grant of the building to JAFI at a cost $420,000, and immediately deeded it in The Jefferson Alcoholic Foundation Inc.'s name. Not only that, they extended a grant for the many thousands of dollars in renovations needed to make it comfortable for our Members and 12 step fellowships! There are no strings, no mortgage, and no debt. The legacy of ARF's generosity will endure.

We are now the stewards of this incredible gift of a home. We have the privledge and responsibility of welcoming the newcomer; comforting the restless, irritable and discontented; and providing continous fellowship space all day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. From morning through the evening we will always know a place where the language of the heart is spoken., a cup of coffee will be waiting, and a 12 step meeting will soon start.

For JAFI Clubhouse members, we will no longer have to worry about the pressures of commercial development threatening our ability to provide space for the recovery community to have 12 step meetings. Space that isn't limited by someone else's generosity, or a potential end to that benefit looming.. JAFI was originally incorporated to establish a legal entity that could lease space for the Five Points AA Group because no single church could host an AA group that had multiple meetings every day of the week. 

Our mission later expanded to support other AA groups and then to all to 12 Step Fellowships. Through the generosity of the Addiction Recovery Foundation, we now own our space.  There is no longer a precarious thirty day lease preventing us from planning for our future. We are free to make repairs and improvements to the Clubhouse without the potential loss of those investments to the loss of our lease.

As for the Addiction Recovery Foundation, if their goal was to use the funds they had to establish a forever home for the recovery community in Birmingham then we are witness to, and benefactors of, that goal having been accomplished.

When JAFI was founded in 1978 we benefitted from the commercial decline of the city center that made free parking abundant.. UAB was in its infancy and the 5 Points Neighborhood was in commercial decline. UAB and Five Points as a whole have had explosive growth since 1978. Even Chik-Fil-a recently had difficulty securing adequate parking space. In the JAFI Board of Directors multiyear search for an appropriate site, parking was a high priority. No affordable site with more than fifteen on-site parking spaces was ever found.  

JAFI Clubhouse does not generate the income needed from dollar cups of coffee to compete with commercial businesses for space. Several potential sites closer to our present location were rejected because street parking was nonexistent, or required paying parking meters. The site we found does have enough parking directly next to the building to welcome those who don't have the ability walk a half block, or go up stairs. The street parking is free, and expected to remain so.

We want to be "friendly with our friends", and not abuse the generosity of our neighbors. We have about ten parking spaces off of 7th alley behind the building  We ask that we reserve these spaces for the handicapped and older JAFI Clubhouse members who have less mobility.. Taking the Steps should be something we're all familiar with, right? 

There's lots of street parking on 7th Ave and the surrounding streets.. Please don't park in the private parking lots of our neighboring businesses, nor in the apartment residents's parking. 

Do you need someone to draw you a picture? It's OK. We did!