Local Alternatives to Violence team speaks at CWC

 

A team of volunteers who lead the local Alternatives to Violence Project make a presentation at Central Wyoming College on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a volunteer-run program that conducts experiential workshops to develop participants’ abilities to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, manipulation or coercion.

The AVP team includes Maria Farias, Donn Kesselheim, Scott Ratliff and Doug Newlin who offer workshops and presentations in the community as well as at the Wyoming Honor Farm.

The project began in 1975 when inmates at Green Haven Prison in New York asked local Quakers to teach incarcerated youth how to resolve conflicts nonviolently. The success of the workshops quickly spread by word of mouth, and the program took root in many state and federal prisons throughout the country. Workshops are now offered in communities.

Newlin said the project team intends to pattern the CWC presentation on an actual workshop that has been conducted at the Honor Farm. Kesselheim begins with a history of AVP while Farias introduces the basic tenant of AVP, which is transforming power.

Ratliff follows with an abbreviated version of an exercise utilizing brainstorming techniques focusing on violence and non-violence. Newlin said the exercise involves audience participation.
Sponsored by the CWC Diversity Committee, the AVP presentation is open to the public and refreshments are served.