assigned reading

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Experienced.

The

Changes Lives

Alternatives To Violence Project/California

In a split second, Violence

young life shattered. A prison locked down for months. A community living in fear. It doesnt have to be this way. Twenty years of experience teaches us.

There is an alternative. One that works. One that changes lives.

For over 20 years, weve brought our workshops and our community volunteers into Californias prisons.

Ninety percent of prisoners will come back into our communities

The Alternatives to Violence Project gives people the tools they can use to change themselves and our violent society. Our participants learn new ways to react to potentially violent situations new ways to respond to conflict and frustration. We dont lecture or preach. Through our series of intensive workshops, we give people the life-changing experiences - the profound interactions with others -that unlock the fear and compassion, the hidden despair and the untapped strength they have inside. Right now we have trained facilitators in 18 prisons. Prison staff calls AVP the most successful program at reducing violence we have ever encountered. Because our program model really works, weve been invited to bring it in to every prison in the state and we could - if we had the funds and the volunteers. But, we dont work only in prisons. Every prison workshop includes community volunteers who have been trained in the community workshops we hold in towns across California. Over the years, weve realized that AVP is a gift that everyone can use. Because all of us - free or incarcerated - are affected by violence, conflict and anger. We have a dream: to bring the AVP program to every person in California who wants it.
Changes Lives

Our community workshop program is expanding! Every day we get calls from neighborhood groups, from teachers, from churches, Communities who want - who need - what AVP has to offer. And our waiting lists for the prison programs are full. Will you help us keep up with the demand? Will you donate today? Because we are a 100% VOLUNTEER organization, your contributions will go directly toward growing our program. We also invite you to join us for a community workshop. You might find, as we did, that these workshops will change your life. So now, please meet some of the people whose lives have been changed by facilitators, and AVP. Keep reading and youll hear from prisoners, volunteers, and prison officials how AVP transformed their belief in what is possible. The message they bring is clear. There is hope. There is an alternative. Because violence is no match for love.

The Two Wolves Within

An old Grandfather said to his grandson, who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice... Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. Its like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But...the other wolf... ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing. Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit. The boy looked intently into his Grandfathers eyes and asked, Which one wins, Grandfather? The Grandfather smiled and quietly said, The one I feed. -- From the Cherokee tradition
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Incarcerated Participants
My name is Michael Holtry. I am an inmate at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, California. I allowed myself to become a person of misguided anger, self-destructive attitudes, and bullying of the people who loved and supported me. This was a path that eventually led me to lashing out physically, committing harm, and the taking of two lives in 1992. After my incarceration, I immediately recognized the need to change and that the change had to come directly from me. I have become very passionate about AVP and what it represents, and what it can do if one is truly open to change. I graduated from the Basic and Advanced AVP workshops, and willingly signed up to become a facilitator. AVP not only gives me the opportunity to help people grow, but it also shows me that no matter what I have done, there is still room for growth within myself.

AVP is the only program in which I have participated that truly offered me the ability to affect and help myself and others.

My name is Dan Rees. In 1985, I lost direction, purpose and community in my life. My frustration and anger resulted in an outburst of rage that tragically took the life of a wonderful person. Sentenced to 15 to life in prison, I remain incarcerated today in Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. In 1990, when I first encountered AVP, I was a bitter, selfish young prisoner. It has changed my outlook, way of thinking, actions and my life. Ive been involved with AVP for 21 years now, as a lead facilitator, team coordinator and inside coordinator for Chuckawalla since 2007. The program is very popular here the interest and waiting lists outstrip the availability of community facilitators.

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The simplicity, unity and community of AVP have brought me to a level of peace of mind I have never experienced before.

Changes Lives

Corrections Officials
My name is Don Stohl. Ive worked for CDCR for 15 years as both an officer and sergeant. Ive worked all levels of custody from Level One to Security Housing Units. I became involved in the AVP program when I was the Facility B Sergeant at Substance Abuse Training Facility at Corcoran. The Associate Warden assigned me to ensure the program functioned. At the time all I could think of was what have they got me into now. The Associate Warden and the program coordinator told me I would see a change on the yard, but having watched programs for 15 years and not seeing changes, I was skeptical at best. I was certainly wrong about that. After about the third AVP program, I could begin to see how it affected B Facility, all for the better. Inmates who went into it as disciplinary problems improved their programming performance and were not in trouble. Inmates who wrote multiple appeals started talking to staff first in attempts to resolve situations without appeals. Inmates would begin to look for alternative solutions

AVP is one of the most positive programs I have seen...

to gang and affiliation issues on the facility. AVP is one of the most positive programs I have seen and I would love to see it on my current facility at SATF. I would also like to see it offered to staff, as I would love to attend an entire program, not see bits and pieces of it.

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My name is Jackie Kramer.

An inmate experience I hold in my heart is hearing all ethnicities participating in a light and lively exercise at a mini-workshop laughing together and enjoying themselves. I thought: Does that kind of laughter and enjoyment happen anywhere else in prison? I cant imagine it does.

I began working at the Correctional Training Facility (CTF) at Soledad in 1986. As the Associate Wardens secretary, I am a sponsor of the AVP Inmate Leisure Time Activity Group at CTF Central Facility. I attended both a basic and advanced workshop in the community.

Community Facilitators and Participants

Alan and Mimi Edgar. We completed the AVP workshops in the 1990s and our intention was always to do AVP in the prisons. In 2005 we received a call that AVP was being welcomed back in the prisons and Soledad was ready. We facilitated the first AVP workshop at Correctional Training Facility in January 2006. In January of 2007 we were invited to start a program in Salinas Valley State Prison. (Alan and Mimi also hold down full-time jobs.)

AVP is a gift. Its a way to make deep connections with other people, both in and out of workshops. Doing prison workshops has opened my heart and mind to the pain and suffering in peoples lives, and has allowed me to see first-hand how it can be a catalyst for change in those who are searching for a better life.

My name is Ileana Herrera. Ive been a community facilitator since 2008 and every month I go to Valley State Prison for Women. Though I have worked in Domestic Violence and Anger Management work prior to AVP and was a victim of domestic violence, nothing I had seen in that field could be directly applied in life. AVP works and its easy. If you blow it, you can try again the next day. (A single grandmother, Ileana also works full time.)

Dr. Azhar Hussein, a participant in our 2011 multicultural community workshop in San Diego who returns often to Iraq, his country of origin, to give trainings in Counseling and Interpersonal Relationships, writes The weekend was really a moving experience and took me to a new level of insight.

Changes Lives

Formerly Incarcerated Facilitators

Gori Urling has taken AVP by storm since being off parole in 2010 from Central California Womens Facility. Starting by taking a Training for Facilitators workshop, then facilitating four workshops, attending the national conference to serve on a panel and serving on the steering committee of AVP California, Gori also finished her Associate of Science degree in Information Systems. Gori continues to involve other parolees in the work of AVP.

AVP is undergoing tremendous growth, with new workshops every month in new communities and new connections being forged between prisons and community volunteers. Much of the new energy for this growth comes from people like Toby and Gori who were formerly incarcerated stepping up to become facilitators and organizers.

AVP was a ray of hope for me inside. The business card you give out was like extending a hand to me in prison. I called AVP first when I got out and your continued welcome is making this very difficult mountain I still face in getting back into a hostile society something I am doing.

My name is Toby Laverty. Im chair of AVP USAs Communications Committee, actively organize workshops in the Bay Area, AVP/CA Steering Committee and was fortunate to Co-Chair the 2011 National AVP Conference. My dream is that AVP/CA have as many community workshops as we do prison workshops, as healing and peacemaking are dearly needed on both sides of the wall.

As a previously incarcerated person, I am well aware of not being equal in the world, but when I sit in an AVP circle, I am an equal part of that community.
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What are these people doing?

Changing livesone workshop at a timeby sharing, playing, listening and being there for one another in a community-building Alternatives to Violence Project Workshop You can change lives, too. yours and others!

YES, I WANT TO HELP CHANGE LIVES!

Name
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E-Mail (to hear stories about changed lives) ____________________________________________________________ Address

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________

City,________________________________________State

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Phone

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Every penny goes to workshops; everyone is a volunteer. Heres my check to AVP/CA, P.O. Box 3294, Santa Barbara, CA 93130 Ill use my credit card online at www.avpcalifornia.org I will designate AVP/CA through the California State Employees Charitable Campaign. I want to change lives every month, sign me up as a monthly supporter.

Amount:

$10/mo.(min) $15/mo. $20/mo. ________Other

$__________ Monthly automatic withdrawal from my checking account (We will send you a form.)

I want to help increase the lives changed:

Sign me up to take a workshop. Sponsor an AVP workshop through your group or place of worship. Host community volunteers; provide housing and refreshments. Check Facebook: Alternatives to Violence Project/California. Ill link to my page.
The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have. ~Leonard Nimoy