What is the AVP Program?

The AVP Program

It is a grassroots, all-volunteer experiential program, helping people change their lives...
It is a community program, offering a new approach for community groups, businesses, social service agencies, youth organizations and all who would like to participate...
It is a prison program, that pro- vides space for people inside and outside prison walls to build community that allows for discovery of our own truths and in- sights as we learn new skills and practice transforming our- selves and the situations we find ourselves in...
It is a program for everyone. Though founded by Friends (Quakers) based on the belief in an innate goodness and, there- fore, power for peace in every- one, it draws participants and facilitators from all faith traditions, ethnicities and walks of life...

It is an intensive learning experience, offering three-day work- shops on three levels:

The Basic Workshop

The Advanced Workshop

The Training for Facilitators Workshop

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Our History

The AVP program began in 1975 when a group of people inside the walls at Green Haven Prison (NY), calling themselves the Think Tank, felt the need for nonviolence training in preparation for their roles as counselors in an experimental program with young people. They collaborated with the Quaker Project on Community Conflict, and devised a prison workshop. The success of this workshop quickly generated re- quests for more, and AVP was born. The program quickly spread to many other prisons.

As the program spread, it became obvious that violence and the need for this training exists just a much outside prison walls as within, and that everyone in all walks of life and circumstance is exposed to and participates in violence in some way. Violence comes in many forms: physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse including put-downs, some jokes and some sarcasm, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, neglect and oppression.

AVP in New York

In New York State there are local AVP groups across the state from New York City to Buffalo who conduct workshops inside prisons and with community and school groups. In 2019, we held 168 workshops. For a summary of this work, please see our AVP New York News page on this website.

Adirondack

Albany

Catskill

Central New York

Connecticut

Elmira

Genesee Valley

Mid-Hudson

New Jersey

New York City and Long Island

Niagara Frontier

Pennsylvania

Westchester

AVP Around the World

The AVP program is probably one of the world’s best-kept secrets. Starting with one workshop in 1975, the program has spread by word of mouth across the country and around the world.

Today, there are AVP conflict work- shops in Jordan for refugees from Syria. There are also AVP conflict resolution workshops in Rwanda with families of victims of the genocide and perpetrators of the genocide in the same workshop. If the program can work in Rwanda, it can work anywhere.

There are AVP programs 35 states in the United States plus the Virgin Islands and in more than 55 countries on six continents.

"It is a grassroots, all-volunteer experiential program, helping people change their lives..."