The name ITALYPAA stands for Italian Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (YPAA) movement was born in North America as the result of an AA gathering of Young People at Niagara Falls in 1957.
Bill W., at the 1960 A.A. Convention, noted that the age of new members was much lower than when he and Dr. Bob founded A.A., 25 years earlier. In the letter written to the 12th ICYPAA (International Conference YPAA) in 1969, Bill W. is quoted saying: -

“...in the recent years I have found nothing for greater inspiration than the knowledge that A.A. of tomorrow will be safe, and certainly magnificent in the keeping of you who are the younger generation of A.A. today.”.

The next ICYPAA conference will take place in San Francisco, September 2023 and will be in its 63rd year in a row that this event has been running.
ITALYPAA was born as the result of the European wide YPAA convention ‘EURYPAA’ held in Rome in 2015, where a group of Italian alcoholics, young in age and at heart, were given the opportunity to form a committee and put on their first young person’s convention, meet other members from other countries and hear some great recovery mixed with lots of fun!
This EURYPAA event in 2015 led the committee to have the desire to create a similar YPAA event within Italy too, with both English and Italian speaking meetings.
ITALYPAA, like all YPAA events, changes its location every year: in 2016,2017 and 2018 respectively in Milan, then Vicenza in 2019 Vicenza and in 2022 in Bologna. In 2023, ITALYPAA will take place in the beautiful city of Treviso, near Venice in North East of Italy.
In Europe we also have SCANCYPAA (Scandinavian YPAA), IREYPAA (Ireland YPAA), BALTYPAA (Baltics YPAA), SWENCYPAA (Swedish YPAA), FINYPAA (Finnish YPAA) as well as EURYPAA (European YPAA) which will be held in Berlin in 2023.
With the term ‘young’ we mean all who are alcoholics in recovery that are willing to grow. Alcoholism does not have age barriers! ITALYPAA is an event with the primary purpose of carrying the AA message to all our members and the still suffering alcoholic.