Alternatives To Violence

I attended Alternatives to violence program (AVP) meeting which was held at KPU Surrey campus. Alternatives to Violence Program began in 1975 in a New York prison at the request of long-term prisoners. A workshop was held for youth coming into conflict with the law. The success of this workshop quickly generated requests for more, and the program quickly spread to many other prisons (The AVP program, 2018). AVP has become an international voluntary movement and has spread to over 50 countries around the world. They organize workshops empowering people to lead nonviolent lives, based on respecting and caring for ourselves and others. AVP has three levels of workshops, namely AVP Basic, AVP Advanced, and Training for Facilitators (T4F). These

I think I could see it very clear at AVP that these individuals who had a very violent past where they're talking about it with such patients that it is hard to imagine that they could have been violent. Restorative justice must be more than a program within the current system. Elliot argues in her book that “Facilitating this shift requires a rethinking of the assumptions around punishment and justice, placing emphasis instead on values and relationships. But if we can achieve this change, we have the potential to build a healthier, more ethical and more democratic society”. AVP has been known to help reduce violence within prisons, reduce recidivism, and improve communication both among the incarcerated community and with prison authorities. So why not invest in programs such as AVP that show results and focus on rehabilitating these individuals rather than keep them locked

I would say Yes, definitely. As it helped me a lot to change and work on my own behavior. Also, it gave me a different perspective on another people’s life. I was really thankful for the honesty of these offenders. Building relationships that can meaningful and respectful in offender’s life can have a positive role. I would like to attend more of these workshops because I learned so much and I enjoyed the interactions I had with the members. I think this is a great way to help offenders as a community. We have a choice and it amazes me to see all these individuals behind these workshops who take so much time and effort to volunteer for bringing change and creating meaningful relationships. I think we all humans need to learn to accept one another to whoever we are and not hurt each other and get immune and desensitized to violence. I really like this part of the poem at the beginning of the book by