AVP National May 2006

Announcing the AVP National Gathering in Boston, Massachusetts, May 2006

Walls to Bridges

Mark your calendars and make your plans. Encourage someone new to come. The AVP National Gathering this year is Friday, May 26, through Monday, May 29, on the beautiful and comfortable campus of Stonehill College, just 22 miles south of Boston. Our theme, Walls to Bridges, reflects the desire to honor the walls and boundaries that help define individuals and organizations working toward a non-violent and just society while identifying bridges to ways of working together towards these aims. In keeping with this theme, we are organizing the workshops around the following five categories


* Bridges to our Deeper Selves: Enabling Transforming Power to Come Alive in Our Daily Lives
… the personal journey we share in bridging the gap between our highest goals for ourselves as practitioners of non-violence and the way we conduct ourselves in the world

§ Bridges Between Communities: Building Bridges While Acknowledging the Walls
Looking at ways we can address issues around non-violence and corrections, adult and youth crime, re-entry, and social justice in AVP programs or in cooperation with others to further the goals of justice and healing in the world.

§ Bridges to Effectiveness: Doing the Most With What We Have
Looking at ways we can address issues around non-violence and corrections, adult and youth crime, re-entry, and social justice in AVP programs or in cooperation with others to further the goals of justice and healing in the world.

* Bridges to Better Workshops: Learning From Each Other
Dealing with the organizational and administrative aspects of AVP, such as recruiting, funding, and coordination with departments of corrections..



* Bridges to Inclusiveness: Hearing From Everyone
Although the categories above cover a wide range of topics, your workshop idea may not fall neatly within one of them. This category is meant for you. All ideas are welcomed at this gathering.


Featured Presenters

Bo Lozoff has been working with prisoners for over 30 years. His first book, We Are All Doing Time, is now in its thirteenth printing. Bo's newest book is titled It's a Meaningful Life -- it Just Takes Practice. The Lozoffs have been cited for numerous humanitarian awards, including the prestigious Temple Award for Creative Altruism from the Institute for Noetic Sciences. Their sincerity and commitment have earned the respect of hundreds of thousands of prisoners and others around the world who feel inspired to follow a similar path of living simply and joyfully caring about others.

Robin Casarjian is author of Houses of Healing: A Prisoner’s Guide to Inner Power and Freedom (1995), and co-author of Power Source: Taking Charge of Your Life (2003), a training manual for at-risk teens and young adults. For her prison work, Robin Casarjian was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Interfaith Counseling Services of MA and was honored by The Giraffe Project, a national program recognizing individuals who "stick out their neck" for the greater good. A major focus of her work has been facilitating statewide trainings for front-line correctional rehabilitation staff in the U.S. Robin also conducts grassroots public education about the need to make prisons places for people to heal.

David Bucura is the Coordinator of African Great Lakes Initiative/Friends Peace Teams. He served as the National Coordinator of AVP Rwanda from 1998 to 2004. During this time, he organized the training of 60 AVP facilitators and over 100 AVP workshops for gacaca judges -- local "elders" who are adjudicating the 120,000 genocide suspects who were imprisoned for almost ten years since the 1994 genocide. This work has been an important tool for judges and administrators to maintain an atmosphere of calm and respect while gathering accurate information. AVP in Africa has been found to be helpful to empower women, recognize and address domestic violence, and to provide a positive experience of diversity across economic levels, genders, ethnicity, and religious traditions. David has been an integral part of these efforts.



More Information

For more information consult our new website, http://www.AVPBoston2006.org, for:
· registration and scholarship applications
· travel information
· information about the conference facility
· additional sightseeing suggestions for New England

Register by March 17 to take advantage of our early bird rate.

(Registration forms are available online and in the Transformer)

It will be an especially great gathering if YOU can come!!