Wyoming Association of Churches

The Alternatives to Violence Project

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a private non-profit educational corporation, funded entirely by private sources and staffed entirely by volunteers. In its origins and philosophy, it has ties to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), but it is not a sectarian organization.

The program began in 1975 in the New York State prison system, and still continues to work there. The first workshop was held in Greenhaven Prison, after an inmate group felt the need for non-violence training. They had agreed to serve as counselors in an experimental program in a Division for Youth institution for under-age offenders. These prisoners asked a local Quaker group to provide such training, and this was done. From Greenhaven the program spread to other prisons. For some years the focus was upon prisons, and the major effort was to help people to reduce the level of violence in the prison environment, to survive it, and at the same time to deal with the violence in their own lives.

As time passed, it became clear that the violence of prisons is merely a distilled version of the violence pervading our whole society. The high level of violence among our citizens is in part a response to the violence embedded in our institutions and our values. Some people more than others are entrapped by this violence, and find that it fills their lives with trouble. But there is no one among us that does not share the capacity for violence, and no one who is not hurt by it, in one way or another. Individuals not connected with prisons began to seek the AVP training. Soon it became clear that the program was needed as much in the outside community as in the prisons. Now (in 2002) there is a network of AVP facilitators who lead workshops in about 40 states and perhaps 20 countries overseas.

The AVP workshop is based upon an experiential process of seeking and sharing, and not of teaching. Facilitators do not bring answers to the persons they work with, because they do not possess answers to the problems of other persons. Rather, they believe that the answers -- for all of us -- lie buried in the same place as are to be found our questions and problems: that is, within ourselves. The facilitator's role is to provide a stimulus and to fashion a "seeker-friendly" environment, that will encourage workshop participants to search within themselves for solutions to the violence that we all carry.

In Wyoming, AVP workshops have been offered, mostly within our correctional institutions, for over a decade.

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The Spiritual Life Committee

The primary function of this committee is to develop a close personal relationship with member judicatories and ecumenical partners as they carry out their ministries throughout Wyoming. The WAC will work to provide improved inter-judicatory communication and develop resources that will help carry out that ministry. The committee’s responsibilities include the following:

Providing an updated WAC website that will include information on religious and spiritual events. The website will be used to publicize all public events and include a controlled chat room (formerly known in the business as a bulletin board) where issues can be discussed by participants from Wyoming and beyond.
Sponsorship of an annual New Pastor’s Conference
Sponsorship of an annual education event
Publication of a more extensive WAC newsletter
An additional educational event to accompany each year’s annual meeting
Earth Charter to be a major focus of study for the committee
Reaching out to other Faith Groups for purposes of better knowledge of these groups, as well as sharing in common understandings.

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Promoting Social Justice Committee

The old WCC had a long tradition of promoting justice issues in the state and beyond. This committee will continue that tradition with the intention of helping member judicatories make a difference in people’s lives. The WAC will research, publicize and promote agreed upon issues that affect the state’s residents. When appropriate, the WAC will make its opinion known regarding legislation before the Legislature and the U.S. Congress. The committee’s responsibilities include the following:

Promotion of human rights issues
Support of the state’s domestic violence programs
Continued opposition to capital punishment
Promotion of “restorative justice”
Addressing issues of poverty
Working in alliance with Faith Initiatives of Wyoming
Working to combat alcohol and drug abuse
Continued opposition to any expansion of legalized gambling in Wyoming
Peace making
Support of good government initiatives
Support of Native American justice concerns

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