The Alternatives to Violence Program helps people find ways of dealing with conflict in their lives other than through resorting to violence.

Individuals who come to an AVP week-end (days only) from outside the prison, often with no prior prison experience, have a profound ministry. They bring a connection to the outside world, a belief in the dignity of every human being, and an openness to learning more about the individuals who are prisoners in our society, as well as learning about the criminal justice system that we, as taxpayers, support.

The central theme in AVP is Transforming Power. This is the power, available to us all, to change (transform) what might be a violent or destructive situation into a nonviolent one. The basis of Transforming Power is an appreciation of one's own self worth and a caring attitude towards all others. Accessing this power requires the ability to separate feelings about someone's behavior from feelings for that person.

In AVP workshops we seek to teach these concepts not by lecture or reading but by hands-on experience that allows participants to teach themselves by living and feeling the concepts of Transforming Power.

To experience the importance of caring for one another, participants engage in exercises, discussions, role plays, and games. From the start of the workshop, we emphasize instilling and reinforcing a sense of self worth, building community, and developing trust within the group. The exercises AVP uses to accomplish these goals involve sharing life experiences and life goals, and honing communications skills.

Listening is a crucial skill that participants are able to develop. Most people have much experience of being talked at; the experience of being really listened to is rare and precious. Violence often is the result of frustration at not being heard, and can just as often be defused by nothing more than an act of creative listening. AVP has developed exercises which help individuals to test their capacity to listen, to practice and improve this skill, and to learn by experience.

In AVP prison workshops, individuals learn caring for one another. This happens even in the prison environment, which tends to be hostile to such an attitude. In prison, the community built during an AVP weekend is a rare and profound gift. As the weekend builds, participants plan and carry out role plays which challenge them to use their new-found communication skills, their sense of community and Transforming Power, and to peacefully resolve potentially violent situations.

As we broaden our understanding and perspective through exposure to prisoners and prisons, we accomplish Jesus' mandate to, "Visit those in prison." Through our experience, we come to realize Jesus has offered us a gift, a means of more fully claiming His presence and power in our lives, and the lives of others.

AVP takes place several times monthly in prisons throughout eastern Massachusetts. It is offered in English and Spanish.

Visit AVP websites:
www.avpusa.org - Alternatives to Violence Project
www.avpnh.org - New Hampshire
www.avp-me.org - Maine
members.tripod.com/~AVP_VT/ - Vermont

How AVP Works
by Martin Hattersley
"I come back from the Pe Sakastew centre at Hobbema tired but refreshed. In 48 hours, a nervous and suspicious group of inmates, most of them doing time for crimes involving drugs, alcohol and violence, has turned into a collection of friends: open, sharing, and above all, filled with self-confidence and good humor.

How has it all come about?"   Read on..

A Few Black Men
by Jeannette Hanlon
"A few weeks ago I found myself sitting in a class at Harvard Divinity School listening to a white professor bemoan the fact that two black professors were leaving the school. As a racially mixed class, we thought strategically about how we could influence the white committee responsible for hiring future professors. My mind wandered back twenty-four hours.

The day before I was in prison. There was no dearth of black men there."
Read on...

The Flame Within Each Of Us, Prisoner or Free
by Tom Lake
"We each have an inner flame, but so too does our neighbor sitting next to us, so too do prisoners sitting in jail. We grow by nurturing the flame in ourselves and in our neighbors. We grow by sharing.
Some months ago Jeannette Hanlon came to our church and described various prison programs she was involved in. Sounded interesting, but not for me-what would I have to offer?"   Read on...

The Difference Between "It" and "I"
by Janel Rice
"They," the incarnated, the criminals, the inmates-they were not, in any way, a distinct breed of Homo Sapiens, who would always be the static "criminal."
Incarcerated or free, a person can never be an "it." To deal with a person as an "it," Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "is to depersonalize the potential person and desecrate what he is."
The roots of non-violence that take hold in me may also take hold in my new brothers and sisters.   Read on...