AVP IN NEW SOUTH WALES
ABOUT US
AVP New South Wales is based upon our power to transform, respecting ourselves, caring for others, expecting the best, thinking before reacting, and seeking a nonviolent way.
We offer workshops on two levels, the Basic Workshop and the Advanced Workshop, as well as the Training for Facilitators Workshop. Learn more here about getting involved as a participant or facilitator.
We offer workshops on two levels, the Basic Workshop and the Advanced Workshop, as well as the Training for Facilitators Workshop. Learn more here about getting involved as a participant or facilitator.
WHO BENEFITS
AVP is of value to anyone whose life is affected by conflict and violence, including the following: people in relationships, family members, children, parents, anyone who would like to change, anyone who has been violent and wants to change their violent or angry response to conflict, victims who want to respond to violence and anger differently, teachers, team leaders, social workers, counsellors, and youth workers... just to mention a few.
The level of conflict and violence in our society is of wide concern. Many people are caught in a cycle of violence as victims and/or perpetrators. Violence occurs in many forms, physical, verbal, emotional and psychological. It can be "high level" violence that makes headlines and generates wide-spread fear and apprehension, or the "low level" bullying, criticism, put-downs, denigration, exclusion, discrimination, and disrespect that harms in more subtle and hidden ways.
The level of conflict and violence in our society is of wide concern. Many people are caught in a cycle of violence as victims and/or perpetrators. Violence occurs in many forms, physical, verbal, emotional and psychological. It can be "high level" violence that makes headlines and generates wide-spread fear and apprehension, or the "low level" bullying, criticism, put-downs, denigration, exclusion, discrimination, and disrespect that harms in more subtle and hidden ways.
OUR HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
Our original AVP mandala
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A few of our philosophies on a NSW poster
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HISTORYThe Alternatives to Violence Project began in 1975 with a group of inmates, the Think Tank, in a New York prison who were working with youth gangs and young offenders. They asked some visiting Society of Friends (Quakers) to help develop workshops exploring nonviolent relationships.
The process they used grew out of the nonviolence principles and experiential learning methods developed to train marshals in how to keep peace marches and demonstrations nonviolent during the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam Moratorium campaigns. They also drew on the experience of the Children's Creative Response to Conflict (CCRC) program which was using experiential learning processes for teaching nonviolent conflict resolution to primary school students. By 1987 there were 150 workshops in prisons a year in New York and New Jersey. Gradually the program spread across the United States and workshops were held in more than 40 states. The program expanded to Canada and gradually spread around the world. There are now AVP programs in more than 60 countries in across every continent and region. As the program spread the workshops were increasingly held in many varied communities and in schools and higher education institutions. In 1991, the AVP program was brought to Australia by the Society of Friends (Quakers), when Stephen Angell, an AVP facilitator from New York, ran the first Australian AVP workshop in Queensland. AVP in Australia has been steadily growing ever since, and is now a network of grass-roots volunteer organisations in each Australian state and territory. Australian AVP workshops are held in the community, in prisons, in schools, and with refugees. AVP NSW started in 1992 when Stephen Angel ran the first workshop at the Devonshire Street Quaker Meeting House. The AVP Sydney community workshops started in 1993. Since then the active Sydney group has conducted workshops in the community, in a number of schools, in a number of prisons, in interfaith communities and recently with refugees. Since 2012 AVP NSW has been running conflict transformation workshops in partnership with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), a section of the NSW Department of Health. These workshops have a mixture of refugees, workers from refugee support groups and members of the general community. In 2018 STARTTS and AVP is involved in an evaluation program studying the impact of AVP workshops on the development of social capital amongst refugees. For more information about STARTTS check their website http://www.startts.org |
PHILOSOPHYHow does AVP work? AVP is based on several insights:
• Within each of us, there is a power for good and a potential to transform conflict • In any situation, there are nonviolent alternatives to violent responses to conflict. • Every culture has its own range of nonviolent alternatives to violence in response to conflict. • Each of us has the option to choose our response to each experience of conflict. The key features of AVP workshops are: • Voluntarism – no one participates on a mandated basis, and the facilitators are unpaid volunteers • Teamwork – there is always a team of serveral facilitators of diverse background and life experience, with shared leadership and no guru • Diversity – the participants come from a range of ages, cultures, walks of life, and interests. • A safe learning environment is maintained by group agreement – • No putdowns • Affirm oneself and others • Listen and don’t interrupt’ • Respect confidentially • Volunteer oneself only, speak from the ‘I’ • Everyone has the right to pass if that is the right thing for them at that time • Reliance on Transforming Power • Experiential rather than conceptual focus • A holistic focus, recognising the spiritual dimension of the person, rather than a behaviouristic or rigidly rule-governed focus • Building community is an integral part of the workshop process • Fun and laughter is an integral part of the workshop process • A varied pace, generally brisk, but with time for reflection • Feedback throughout the workshop, with session evaluation and activity debriefing. |
