AVP North Carolina
Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) uses the shared experience of both participants and facilitators to examine how injustice, prejudice, frustration and anger can lead to aggressive behavior and violence. We explore our innate power to respond in new and creative ways.
Anyone can benefit from participating in the workshops, and if you want to give back, with a bit more training, you can become a volunteer facilitator.
“As an AVP Facilitator, AVP has brought joy and meaning to my life. And a continuous way to stay connected with really good people, both inside and outside prison!”
Upcoming Workshops:
- Check back for updates!
Where We Work
In Prisons
AVP North Carolina has programs at the Butner Federal Prison Complex, Alexander Correctional Institution and the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women.
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) has expressed an interest in establishing AVP in more of its facilities.
In Communities
Our community programs in Jamestown and Raleigh offer opportunities for community members to both learn AVP skills and become further involved with this rewarding volunteer work. Once a community member has completed our AVP Basic, Advanced, and Facilitator Training Workshops, they can help facilitate other workshops – both in prisons and in the community.
See how one of our facilitators, BJ Council, is using AVP in Durham!
Our most recent Basic AVP workshop at Jamestown Friends Meeting
November 2022
What is AVP?
The Alternatives to Violence Project offers 2½-day full immersion experiential workshops that enable people to lead more enriching and fulfilling peaceful lives through attitude change and personal transformation.
AVP provides the experience and interpersonal communication tools to prevent, resolve and heal inter-personal and intra-personal conflict through increased self-awareness, empathy, emotional management and personal responsibility.
AVP has proven results with a variety of groups in diverse settings:
- schools [teachers and students]
- organizations
- governmental agencies
- corrections [staff and inmates]
- refugee camps
- post-civil war and genocide communities
- veterans
- street gangs
A core element of AVP is the concept of Transforming Power (TP). TP is simply tapping into the part of ourselves that connects us and allows us to truly be who we are meant to be. We learn how to be ourselves — not who we had to be in order to survive because of circumstances or others’ expectations.
There is so much disconnection, fear and hostility between individuals and groups today that AVP can valuable in almost any setting.
US States and Territories
Prisons
Countries
We’ve Been Doing Workshops for Over 45 Years
The AVP program began in 1975 when a group of inmates at Green Haven Prison (NY) worked with youth coming into conflict with the law. Collaborating with the Quaker Project on Community Conflict, they devised a prison workshop, which quickly became a success and in demand. Thus, AVP was born. Since then, over 15,000 workshops have been provided.
While it started in a prison setting, it soon became obvious that AVP would be useful in community settings so everyone in all walks of life and circumstances could benefit.
Workshops are now offered extensively in communities and schools. There are almost 2,000 volunteer AVP facilitators in the US who work together to provide workshops for, in addition to prisons, businesses, churches, community associations, street gangs, halfway houses, women’s shelters, and many other settings.
Violence: it is not just physical or visible.
From Facebook
After years of providing emotional intelligence workshops to correction staff, John Shuford, AVP NC Facilitator, has written a book! Order it now through the publisher!Mid 21st Century Criminal Justice: Transforming Work Culture is a must read for criminal justice policy makers, leadership, supervisors as well as educators in preparing students for careers in criminal justice!
he.kendallhunt.com/shuford
Here's what one reviewer has said about John Shuford's new book! It's being so well received from those in the industry!! Ordering information below.
"The psychological and physical health needs of Criminal Justice staff beyond the necessary but not sufficient “going home safe at the end of the shift” is finally receiving the attention it deserves. Agency training catalogues, selection and promotion processes, and employee cultures are under the wellness microscope in many locations. If you work in one of those jurisdictions or would like to pave the way for such an initiative, this text is a must. In this content packed text, the reader will be led from research-based consequences of criminal justice employee stress through an analysis of both the neurological and cultural variables that contribute to that stress to a comprehensive yet precisely designed strategy for change, which John has developed during his 30-year career. You will find powerful descriptions of not just what strategies to use, but how to apply them, and what behavioral and psychological principles they address."
Ordering Info:
PUBLISHER:
he.kendallhunt.com/product/mid-21st-century-criminal-justice-transforming-work-culture
AMAZON:
www.amazon.com/Mid-21st-Century-Criminal-Justice/dp/B0BVHXXQ7H/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5WSDWJ9SNUXJ&keywo...
BARNES&NOBLE:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mid-21st-century-criminal-justice-shuford-john/1143060707?ean=9798765765777
Order directly from the publisher, or Amazon, or Barnes&Noble. If you order from Amazon, please go back and leave a review!
Congratulations on the publication of your book!!
So important! What a progressive state!Incarcerated adults from the Richland Correctional Institution are in the midst of CDL training facilitated by Capital Transportation. This is a four-week training program that allows participants to earn an Ohio CDL Class A license.
Hope!
The predatory prison phone call industry is finally about to be fixed
www.theverge.com
The law just needs President Joe Biden’s signature.This would be great if NC did it!!
Incarcerated individuals in WA could soon be paid minimum wage under new proposal
www.theolympian.com
Working incarcerated individuals currently make nowhere close to minimum wage, despite providing goods and services for the state.
Great news! AVP South Carolina is planning a virtual basic workshop with 9 sessions, every Monday evening 6-8 pm on Zoom, starting February 6!
Stay tuned for details about registration.
Testimonials
“AVP has been an opportunity to practice my own skills in patience and better communication, managing frustration, and seeing that everyone of us has insights, experiences, and wisdom to share.”
“It literally changed the course of my life, gave me direction, purpose and enjoyment.”
“It simple – in an AVP workshop I am seen and heard for who I really am and I learn from everyone who interacts with me.”
“AVP has been an invaluable tool and catalyst for change in my life. I believe AVP has not only helped me in personal and leadership development, but has played an important role in changing the course of my life.”
“Facilitating AVP workshops humbles me and inspires me. It has helped me understand both the deep roots of such social ills as poverty and also the resilience of the human heart.”
“It has been the most important part of my life, other than my faith and my wife.”