Our Mission

To empower people to lead nonviolent lives through affirmation, respect for all, community building, cooperation, and trust. 

Founded in and developed from the real life experiences of prisoners and others, and building on a spiritual base, AVP encourages every person's innate power to positively transform themselves and the world.

AVP/USA is an association of community based groups and prison based groups offering experiential workshops in personal growth and creative conflict management.  The national organization provides support for the work of these local groups

AVP is a nationwide and worldwide association of volunteer groups offering experiential workshops in conflict resolution,  responses to violence, and personal growth.

AVP is dedicated to reducing the level of violence in our society. Our goal is to reduce the level of violence by introducing people to ways of resolving conflict that reduce their need to resort to violence as the solution. The Alternatives to Violence Project is designed to create successful personal interactions and transform violent situations. We're dedicated to teaching the same non-violent skills and techniques that were used by Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

We do our training where violence is found.  Our workshops target:   

Prisons

Communities

Schools

Our History

The AVP program began in 1975 when a group of inmates at Green Haven Prison (NY) was working with youth coming into conflict with the law (yes--gangs existed even then).   They collaborated with the Quaker Project on Community Conflict, devising a prison workshop. The success of this workshop quickly generated requests for more, and AVP was born.  The program quickly spread to many other prisons.

Larry Apsey (1902-1997)
One of the founders of AVP

As the program spread, it became obvious that violence and the need for this training exists just a much outside prison walls as within, and that everyone in all walks of life and circumstances is exposed to and participates in some way in violence -- be it physical or "intangible".

Workshops are now offered extensively in communities and schools.   Workshops have been held for businesses, churches, community associations, street gangs, halfway houses, women's shelters, and many others.  The program has been growing at the rate of 25 to 30 percent each year since. There are currently almost 2000 volunteer AVP facilitators in the USA. In 2007, 840 workshops were conducted in the U.S. (in 32 states), and the program has spread to Canada & Mexico; England & Ireland; Eastern & Western Europe; New Zealand & Australia; Central & South America and the Caribbean; Israel, Palestine & Jordan; Russia; Africa (12 countries); India & Indonesia; Hong Kong, Singapore & Japan; and Nepal (for details, see: Avp International).