Meet Some of the Team for our Next Basic AVP Workshop – Beginning Sept. 26, 2020!

August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 / avpindiana / Leave a comment

AVP facilitators often speak of each other as family. The team for the fall 2020 workshop is a wonderfully diverse and enthusiastic clan.

Tre is a high school teacher, with experience in yoga, legal studies, and the military who came to AVP several years ago. “AVP has given me very specific and concrete tools to improve the way I facilitate small group discussions about challenging topics. More fundamentally, AVP was a huge step in developing my compassion for self and others. My most powerful AVP experience was my first prison workshop. I walked in with prejudices about people in prison and the mentality that I was going in to “help” these men. I walked out with profound gratitude for these men who had welcomed me, shown me true compassion, and been more “real” with me than I almost ever find on the outside. That workshop radically changed my perspectives and my self-perception – for the better! And every workshop has strengthened and deepened my commitment to that path.”

Having a heart for the least of God’s children led Sylvia into prison ministry. Prison ministry led her into Madison Prison and her first Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) workshop. That was the beginning of Sylvia’s AVP relationship that has continued for many years to this present day. Sylvia has brought AVP into the community and her prison ministry has grown in the intermediate and advanced courses of AVP. Sylvia is excited about continuing with AVP in the era of COVID19 and to all the bright lights that will come into the Basic AVP workshop.

Latwan served 12 years and 3 months in IDOC. During that time he struggled with the guilt, the shame, and all of the pain that he brought on himself, his family and his community. During that time he participated in an AVP workshop. “It wasn’t work. I started to see myself as a person. My value was returning to me. The support, encouragement, and connectivity gave me tools within myself to heal. Who knew that would put me on a path to become a facilitator. Recognizing that I am so much more than my mistake breathed new life into me.” Today, Latwan’s passion is breaking barriers and building new relationships. Whether as a caterer serving the construction crew he once worked with or as an AVP facilitator, Latwan enjoys learning new skills and is committed to nurturing love, connectivity/community, and down right enjoyment.

Jana, now a resident of Richmond, Indiana, helped introduce AVP in Ohio’s prisons and has facilitated workshops in Tennessee and Indiana communities. She is excited to have time to be active in AVP again. She always receives so much from workshop participants and is thrilled to be part of the effort to re-activate workshops at the Dayton facility where she participated in her first prison workshop. She is an educator and advocate who serves on the Board of the American Friends Service Committee and until recently was the Director of Community Engagement at Earlham College.

Margaret raised her son in Richmond and has recently returned after 15 years living on the East coast. During that time she became addicted to AVP, facilitating in New York prisons and Central America. “People often praise me for volunteering, but I am really doing this for myself. In every workshop, someone says something that is exactly what I need to hear. That’s what I love about AVP: people who may be very different on the outside share their common humanity, each learning from the other.”

The fall 2020 workshop is designed to be Covid-Cautious, bringing together the best of both in-person and on-line workshops. We will begin by meeting each other out-doors with masks for two sessions on one Saturday. The pavilion at Quaker Hill has room to spread out and a large roof to protect us from the elements. The 10 am to 5 pm time frame allows participants to travel from 100+ miles and still make it a one-day event. We look forward to meeting everyone in person, but are prepared to move that first session onto Zoom if conditions dictate. Subsequent sessions will be on Zoom, reducing the need to travel and recognizing that temperatures will be dropping as the fall progresses.

If you would like to try a sneak preview of a workshop or sign up for the Basic, please signup on our registration page.

The Power of the Process

April 1, 2017 / avpindiana / Leave a comment

As a life-long avoider of conflict and an acknowledged introvert, I find it ironic that I spend so much time facilitating Alternatives to Violence Project workshops. It seems so out of character to willingly go into a minimum or medium security prison and spend essentially 18-20 hours over a weekend, once a month, with a bunch of guys dealing with conflict and talking about feelings. It is difficult for me on so many levels. And yet, I keep going back.

For me, it was the power of the process that kept pulling me back. An AVP workshop is packed with interactive, immersion type experiences. It very successfully builds a sense of community and level of trust I have never experienced anywhere else before. It was the power of this community that drew me. I kept learning things about myself and changing, and even though it was challenging, everyone else was being challenged at some level at the same time. I was not alone.

I used to be afraid of doing anything that put me in a position of making mistakes in front of others. The first community workshop I helped facilitate was a baptism in fire. I made all kinds of mistakes, but the process worked so well that in spite of my mistakes, all of the participants grasped what we hoped they would. As one person said at the end of the workshop, “I realize now that non-violent resolution of conflict is inside everyone of us and what we need to do is reach down inside ourselves and pull it out.” I learned to trust the process, because it works. — Magical Miriam

Basic AVP Workshop – Plainfield Correctional Facility – January, 2017

The Alternatives to Violence Project Returns to Kentucky in April

August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 / avpindiana / Leave a comment

In April, AVP Indiana was invited to Berea, Kentucky to facilitate a Basic (1st level) AVP workshop. One of our original group of apprentice facilitators is a Kentucky native and has been working for the last several years to regenerate interest in AVP. This spring, Steve was successful in organizing a group of local Quakers from Berea Friends Meeting to attend a workshop held on the campus of Berea College. It was a beautiful spring weekend, with the trees beginning to leaf and the mountains beckoning in the distance.

Our facilitation team consisted of me, Steve, and Arnold, who was a new apprentice from South Carolina, looking for an opportunity to gain experience. I had never met Arnold before the Friday evening of the workshop, so team building that first evening was crucial. Also, I had not facilitated a community workshop since the fall of 2012 and I knew it would be a different experience than my prison workshops.

Fortunately, the weekend proved to be a great learning experience for all of us. As a facilitation team, we learned how to smooth out some or our own rough spots and became aware of issues that we, ourselves, needed to work on. Personally, I learned to be more sensitive to the needs of the participants. We tried an exercise I had never done, or seen done before, and it generated some strong emotions among the participants. In the evaluation process, I received really good, critical feedback that will help me facilitate the exercise better in the future.

I also discovered that I have come a long way from my former, introverted, conflict-avoiding self. When conflict arose in several instances, I was able to handle them with a great sense of calm. Transforming Power was truly present, because I knew exactly what to do without thinking. It reminded me that the AVP process works and that we can trust it. It was a superb beginning to a new AVP presence in Kentucky!

Magical Miriam