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Creating a Restoring Community Through an Alternative to Violence Program
by Will Stoltz
The author has had extensive experience in developing programs to help people deal with anger. This article provides an outline of the Alternative to Violence Program and invites people to consider using such a program within their own community.
Violence flows out of a fragmented community (whether group or family); one where there is little or no understanding of one another's hopes and struggles. Needing to build lasting bridges of mutual understanding is a way of creating harmonious community. Such community happens wherever persons of varied cultures and faith traditions come together intending respect for one another.
One such restorative community model is the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) a multifaith/culture volunteer organization dedicated to reducing interpersonal violence in community. We yearn for relationships lived with dignity and respect. The opportunity for self-actualization is the birthright of everyone.
It was out of such yearning in 1975 that some young offenders wanted to teach street youth non-violent ways of dealing with differences. Since we learn by experience, the Society of Friends (Quakers) created a series of manuals profiling experiential exercises teaching persons to find alternatives to violence through building self-esteem and self-confidence in a trusting and supportive atmosphere.
The goal of AVP is to reduce the level of violence by introducing people to ways of resolving conflict before it escalates into violence. This happens through skilled volunteer facilitators building a sense of community on a spiritual base of respect and caring for others, which transforms destructive attitudes into goodwill and mutuality. This affirms the power for goodwill and peace in everyone. In AVP, this power leads people away from the violence of coercion and helps them strive for consensus on potentially divisive issues Such transforming power has the ability to transform relationships. Conflict is resolved without loss of integrity or dignity. An evaluation concludes each of the 7 workshop sessions, including what was helpful; what wasn't, and how the exercise could be improved.
AVP is operating in some 21 countries across 5 continents empowering people to be "life giving" in their relationships and on a "shoe-string" budget.
In 1989 AVP started in Canada's federal facilities at Lion's Head, B.C., and in Ontario at Warkworth and Kingston Penitentiaries as well as the Prison for Women. Since 1994, the writer has been overseeing AVP at the Guelph and Burtch Correctional Centres with over 600 graduates completing one or two levels. Preliminary research, comparing those who did AVP with those who did not, show that 7 of 10 returnees are still in the community. In addition, several successful school workshops for Grades 5 to 8 have shown school children how to talk out rather than act out their angry feelings in pre-delinquent activities.
Four skilled volunteers give a 100 hour weekend to drive, prepare, run and debrief a 25 hour intensive program. This happens in many varied communities including prisons, schools, faith groups, women's shelters, and halfway houses. AVP happens wherever people are seeking healing and spiritual growth in harmonious community.
The team members don't bring answers, but rather create an atmosphere where participant's curiosity is piqued into finding their own answers through creative involvement.
How Does an AVP Workshop Happen?
It begins when a request is made for AVP to happen in one's community. This may be in a school, faith group, prison or other facilities.
In true community each pulls the other upThe request is taken to the local AVP Area Council which decides what is needed from the "seeker" concerning funds to cover out of pocket expenses, and whether there are sufficient facilitators to maintain an ongoing program. It seeks to determine how much interest/ownership the asking person(s) group is ready to commit to ensure the program continues once it is launched. The local Area Council decides how many workshops are needed in the various kinds of community. This decision is contingent on how many trained volunteer teams are ready to give up their weekends for AVP. The norm is 4 to 6 weekends a year.
Training Needed to Build Harmonious Community
There are 3 levels which each prospective AVP facilitator (apprentice) grows through.
Level One is a basic workshop with the focus on building a trusting community. This begins with reviewing the Trust Guidelines which include no put downs of others and self; looking for and affirming one another's good points; volunteering yourself only; maintaining confidentiality, and volunteering yourself only.
Twenty participants gather to explore the meaning and applications of transforming power for teaching co-operative behaviour patterns. One exercise called "I Messages" teaches participants to take responsibility for their needs and feelings without accusing or blaming those whose opinion differs from one's own. Light and Lively fun exercises punctuate the reflective exercises to keep people's energy vibrant and enthusiastic.
The exercise "Who Am I" near the end of the workshop invites a reflective/introspective process where participants rank and order 10 qualities/attributes that define them as persons; those which are most important or least important; those to keep and those to get rid of. It's like doing a personal inventory on what kind of people and activities one should put into life. Other key exercises include The Tree of Violence where expressions of violent and non-violent behaviours are explored along with what roots feed these attitudes.
The community circle is a nourishing communityLevel Two (Advanced) builds on the basic level with emphasis on unresolved personal issues, that is, ways of looking at grief (letting go), effective communication, trusting again, anger management, and relational skills. The participants define those areas where they are still carrying unresolved burdens (emotional baggage) and accordingly, want to garner new insight. The team of four facilitators then burn the midnight oil choosing which exercises will most effectively explore these needs and yearnings. Contrary to most workshops, the participants define their priorities while the team choose exercises that will enhance awareness.
The final level called Training Four Facilitators (T4F) is strictly a skill-based teaching on how to become a facilitator. Usually three groups of three familiarize themselves with the content of the 3 manuals while learning to oversee the relational dynamics of the group and relating to other team members. After completing the T4F, and the completion of two apprenticing workshops and affirmation/feedback from the teams lead facilitator, the apprentice is invited to full time involvement on one or more of the Area Council's workshop teams.
AVP Workshop Graduates Speak
"I've learned to think before reacting."
"I realize now how deep seated past hurt had given me a negative outlook and isolated me from intimacy."
"When I remember the violence in my family and on the street I've come to realize that this is the first safe community I have ever been in."
"I've learned to trust again which means I can risk reaching out without fear of rejection."
"A lot of violence I carry is directed toward myself in the form of self-criticism. AVP is helping me see that and helping me to change."
"Once I realized how I was abused as a child, I knew why I had been rebelling all these years doing dumb things that hurt me and others. Now I'm coming to respect myself and others; they in turn do the same with me."
Game called Earthquake where nobody gets hurtAVP Principles Applied Lead to Harmonious Community
Trial programs in Ontario public schools have been strongly affirmed where some teachers are incorporating experiential leanings into their curriculum.. Fewer hassles give teachers more break time. Teachers from Calgary, Alberta state that their schools could have an atmosphere that is violence free within 3 years of active implementing the AVP program.
Prisons have found that graduates of AVP weekends bond emotionally and are a "stabilizing presence" in reducing the likelihood of violent on their units. The Ontario Parole Board-Western Region, states "this program is effective in creating lasting change for the better in the lives of those serving time." Abused women from Correctional Services Canada prisons are finding healing and a renewed sense of energy and courage to explore new life options.
Presently under exploration is the AVP program becoming part of the Ontario Multifaith Council's Re-Integration Project preparation for returnees. Specifically, enhanced character development offered through this program will lower the probability of volatile emotions resulting in violence and possibly prison for returnees leaving incarceration and returning to their community.
When it comes to creating a nourishing non-violent community maybe George Bernard Shaw says it best with the following:
"This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized as a mighty one; being a servant of God instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you and I happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a splendid torch that I have got hold of for a moment. I want to make it burn brightly as possible, before handing it on to future generations."
Will Stoltz is the Chaplain at Burtch Correctional Centre, Brantford, Ontario. For further information about how AVP could enhance your community contact will.stoltz@sympatico.ca
Posted by editor on September 30, 2003 10:34 AM