The 2001 Quaker Peace Roundtable:
Workshop #1: Steve Angell - The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)
Notes by Roger Wolcott
This is a particular angle on peacemaking, we work on ourselves, our own views,
feelings
and actions; also others, we all learn.
AVP began in 1975 in maximum security prisons in New York State. It was a project of
New York Yearly Meeting of Friends and an outgrowth of the Childrens Creative Response to
Conflict (CCRC) which began in 1972.
First there were worship groups in Greenhaven Prison (which is where the New York
state electric chair is located) and the formation of a group called The Think Tank for
men
rethinking their lives. Younger individuals came to hear the stories of men serving long
sentences. The technique here was fear.
Larry Apsey brought a modified version of CCRC to Greenhaven, then the movement
spread to Auburn Prison, then prisons in other states, other countries. It has grown so
fast
because it is popular with prisoners and they tend to have an effective communication
system. The only continent that does not have an AVP program is Antartica. Steve
Angell goes to different places when he is invited, most recently to Jamaica. Here he was
teamed up with two Jamaican men who had learned the technique in prison in the US and
were recruited to bring it back to their homeland.
The philosophy of AVP:
There is good in everyone.
Everyone, participants and facilitators, are volunteers.
All are learners; all are teachers.
The program is experiential: everyone's experience counts, we learn through participation.
In the exercises everyone is learning and sharing
It is not religious but it does have a spiritual basis (Muslim men are particularly effective).
It is not therapy but it can be healing.
The workshop belongs to the participants not to the facilitators.
Guidelines for Workshops
1. Affirm oneself and others
2. There is no put-down of self and others
3. Listen, don't interrupt
4. Don't speak too often or too long
5. Volunteer yourself only (not "everyone knows this" but "I know this")
6. Maintain confidentiality (hard in a prison setting, but very necessary)
7. Everyone has a right to pass (that is, not participate at some time)