When a ninety-year old member of our Quaker Meeting signed up for an AVP weekend, it inspired me to do the same. Over the decades since, I've seen AVP's work transform the lives of plain folks like me, school children, current and formerly incarcerated persons, trauma victims from Rwanda to El Salvador to Indonesia. AVP volunteers go where angels fear to tread--and release the divine angels inside the most feared and abused people. Now, on my fixed income, donating to AVP nourishes me more than groceries do.
New Nancy
I have been facilitating Alternatives to Violence Project workshops in Massachusetts prisons for over 20 years. I have seen it awaken awareness and connection in men who have almost lost hope. I have also been transformed personally by experiencing the community we build in our three day workshops. AVP core practices and principles have deeply influenced my life, my family's, my practice as a teacher and my connections in my neighborhood and spiritual communities.
Going to prison with AVP made me loose my wanderlust. Here was all the depth and breadth of experience I needed. Then AVP took me back on the road to learn and teach at National and International gatherings, to facilitate workshops for correctional officers in Kenya, and to support facilitators in many countries remotely.
The unique blend of reflection, sharing, learning and hilarity draws participants in during our opening hours together and they report lasting connection long after the workshop.
Applying our principles at all levels of the organization has helped us be inclusive and develop a broad based consensus.