What is the Alternatives to Violence Project?
The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is dedicated to reducing the level of violence in our society. Many are shocked by the increasing conflict on the streets, in our school and in the home. More than 10,000 people are victimized by violent crime (49% of all crimes) each year in Louisiana.
Each of these incidents represents a personal interaction that failed. The Alternatives to Violence Project is designed to create successful personal interactions and transform violent situations. The group is dedicated to teaching the same non-violent skills and techniques that were used by Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
AVP focuses much of its efforts toward one of the most violent prone groups in our society, prison inmates. Last year, more than 2,000 inmates in New York State took the training.
Outside prison, in our daily lives, we face interpersonal conflict and non-physical violence everyday. AVP also conducts workshops for teenagers, battered women’s shelter residents, youth home residents, homeless shelter staff members, businesses, and other community groups.
The AVP program began in 1975 when one group of inmates at Greenhaven Prison requested a workshop. The success of this workshop spread by word of mouth and the program has been growing at the rate of 25 to 30 percent each year since. In 1991 over 270 workshops were conducted in New York State and the program has spread to 30 other states, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Ireland, Israel, Russia, and South Africa.

ALTERNATIVES TO VIOLENCE PROJECT