Conciliation Quarterly
Article by
John A. Shuford
The Alternatives to Violence
Project [AVP] has developed into an effective model for conflict resolution
training. It began over 25 years ago
when prison inmates and Quakers developed a workshop to help youthful
offenders. Since then, thousands of
workshops have been presented and many improvements have been made along the
way. There are now 1800 volunteer
Quaker and non-Quaker trainers in over 26 states and 15 countries. They provide
over 1000 workshops annually in prisons and in the community for a wide variety
of groups, from government agencies to business supervisors to homeless people
to mothers who have had their children
taken away from them. Personally, it
has changed my life from being an health care administrator to a full time
conflict resolution trainer and mediator.
It has had a profound impact on how I live my daily life and interact
with others.
We know from experience with a great
diversity of groups that AVP is effective, but what are the reasons for this
effectiveness. We can start by looking
at how we learn, i.e., how our brains function. A thousand years ago, we depended heavily on our right brain, or
the right hemisphere of our brain, for survival, e.g., the "healing arts,
nurturing land and beasts, sensing the currents and moods of the sea or finding
the way across the trackless Arctic ice. "1 Since the industrial revolution, we have
become heavily dependent on left brain activity, i.e., focus on fact,
rationality and verbal communication.
And the price we are paying is that our right brain capabilities remain
latent or even atrophy, at great cost to our personal satisfaction as well as
our effectiveness as problem-solvers.
Neither the left nor the right brain works as fully or creatively on its
own as it does when stimulated or supported by the other. Each side truly needs the other if it is to
function at its best.2 This interdependence of the left and right
brains is not taken into consideration in our public education system. As a result, we see many of our young people
becoming increasingly disaffected and emotionally illiterate.
In order to maximize our learning
environments, the whole brain must be taken into account. Our left brain needs: lecture, data based
content, case discussion, programmed learning, structure, behavior
modification, text books, bibliographies, clear and explicit instructions,
repetitive tasks and handouts. Our
right brain, on the other hand, needs: spontaneity, free flow, experiential
opportunities, experimentation, playfulness, sensory movement, music, group
interaction, guided fantasies, risk taking and people oriented activities with
some emotional content.3 If our learning environment neglects either
side, some or all of our participants will not be open to the new information
and ideas we present. It is amazing
when I ask participants which exercise was the most meaningful for them, each
one mentions something different.
AVP uses the whole brain concept
in creating a workshop atmosphere conducive to learning. Each workshop focuses on the following
areas: affirmation, empowerment, trust building, self exploration, cooperation,
community building, communication skills and problem solving. This is done through a combination of
lecture, games [for fun and as metaphors], small and large group activities,
story telling, humor, the spiritually based theory of Transforming Power,
structured design and experiential exercises.
When I introduce a new skill, I use the following format: I tell them
about it; describe it; model it; let them try it out and then discuss it. We have found that by appealing to both
sides of the brain, participants are more open, trusting and willing to look at
themselves and learn new skills.
Probably the key to this opening up is affirmation. Nedd Hermann, in "The Creative
Brain" states, "Psychotherapists say two antidotes for fear and
anxiety are: (1) information to reduce uncertainty, and (2) reassurance to
provide a feeling of nurture and well-being. . . . [With affirmation,
participants] quiet their inner critic - that ever-watchful part of the left
brain that leaps to protect us from the risk of rejection."4 When this inner critic is quieted, it frees us to risk being open to
new possibilities.
Comments from participants
indicate how deeply the workshops have affected them: "It has always been hard for me to trust other people. I've spent my whole life not trusting other
people. AVP has allowed me the
opportunity to develop trust in myself and in other people and it has made a
incredible difference in how I look at the world and life." "I always thought there were two kinds
of people, strong and weak. When I
learned the difference between passive, assertive and aggressive, it totally
changed my perception. That was the
turning point for me. Strength is now
something that comes from within."
"I went into the workshop as a pessimist and I came out a changed
person. I was alive. I was actually alive. I liked what I saw in myself. I liked what I saw in the mirror." And one last comment from a physician in a
workshop I did last year in Russia, "It's incredible, it's great. The wall came down. AVP makes real change from the effects of
communism, and 70 years is hard to change.
It breaks down barriers between employees. It's our first experience of freedom and what it means. ... The
mere fact that such workshops and groups still exist proves that not everything
is lost yet. There's still hope that
these 'lonely voices' will sometime become the spiritual basis of the
society."
By using a holistic approach to
teaching, AVP offers an effective model which can be used in a variety of
settings with diverse groups. It is an
easy model to learn which has empowered thousands of people, many of whom had
been disenfranchised by society. The
Chief of the Bureau of Prisons in Delaware commented, "I saw AVP
facilitate a dramatic reduction in the number of assaults between inmates in
what had been a difficult maximum security unit. As the program continued to run and 'graduate' more and more
inmates, the overall climate improved to a point where the inmates were
actually seeking out ways to positively affect their environment." This is not an unusual comment by those who
have experienced a fully developed AVP program, and AVP is not unique in this
regard. There are other programs with
equally effective models. The one characteristic
they have in common is the use of a holistic approach to training.
1
Nedd Hermann, The Creative Brain, (Brain Books, 1990), 20.
2
Ibid, 22.
3
Ibid, 417.
4
Ibid, 217.