Our History
The AVP programme began in 1975 when a group of inmates at Greenhaven Prison (New York) was working with youth coming into conflict with the law. 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 programme quickly spread to other prisons, and other organisations when it became obvious that the need for peace training existed just as 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 prisons, communities, schools, government bodies, businesses, community associations, street gangs and so on. The project has been growing at 25 to 30 percent per annum since inception, and there are more than 2000 fully trained volunteer AVP facilitators in the USA alone. The project has also spread to Canada, Europe, New Zealand Australia, Costa Rica, China, Ireland, Israel, Russia, Ghana, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and, of course, South Africa.
An International Gathering is held every two years. In 2006 it was held at Hartbeespoort in the North West Province of South Africa. Over twenty countries were represented. In 2008 it was held at Kakamega in Kenya, and in 2010 it will be held in Kathmandu in Nepal, near India.