Friends General Conference

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Alternatives to Violence Project

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The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is an association of community-based groups and prison-based groups that offer workshops in personal growth and conflict management.  Its goal is to reduce violence by teaching people ways to non-violently resolve conflict.  Its three-day full immersion experiential workshops enable people to lead more enriching and fulfilling peaceful lives through attitude change and personal transformation. AVP provides the experience and interpersonal communication tools to prevent, resolve and heal inter-personal and intra-personal conflict through increased self-awareness, empathy and personal responsibility. AVP has proven results with a variety of groups in diverse settings such as: schools [teachers and students], organizations, governmental agencies, corrections [staff and inmates], refugee camps, post-civil war and genocide communities, veterans, and with street gangs. The efficacy of the AVP methodology is consistent with current brain research, specifically neuroplasticity. There are current programs in 37 states and the Virgin Islands, 98 prisons and in 55 countries worldwide.  It's dedicated to the non-violent skills and techniques used by Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The AVP program began in 1975 when a group of inmates at Green Haven Prison (NY) was working with youth coming into conflict with the law.  They collaborated with the Quaker Project on Community Conflict, devising a prison workshop. The success of this workshop quickly generated requests for more, and AVP was born. The program quickly spread to many other prisons.

AVP has begun in North Carolina with workshops in the eastern part of the state and at Guilford College. Experienced lead facilitators in the east and the Triangle are available to provide community workshops to train facilitators. Once the community facilitator base has been developed, workshops will be offered throughout the state and in NC prisons.  Raleigh Friends Meeting has ties to AVP through its membership.

For more information, email us at AVPNC1@gmail.com

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