The Restorative Heart of AVP: Relationships, Dignity, and Hope Through Shared Learning
This article builds on an earlier article by Dorothée Potter-Daniau and a subsequent webinar hosted by Restorative Practices Ireland in June 2026, in which AVP volunteers Yvonne Carey and Dorothée Potter-Daniau as well as AVP Coordinator Lisa Oelschlegel participated.
The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) started more than 50 years ago in the United States, when people in Greenhaven Prison in New York who were concerned about violence inside prisons and in their communities reached out to social justice activists and local Quaker groups to explore different ways of responding. Since then, AVP has spread to more than 60 countries around the world. While AVP workshops now take place in many different settings, including prisons, schools, communities, and refugee camps, the foundation remains the same: people coming together, sitting in a circle, and learning from and with one another. In Ireland, AVP has offered workshops in prisons for more than 30 years, providing spaces for reflection and exploration of community-building, affirmation, nonviolent communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and transformation.
What makes AVP restorative?
Although AVP is not a restorative justice programme, it is deeply restorative in nature. It does not facilitate victim-offender dialogue or set out to repair a particular incident of harm. Nevertheless, at its heart, AVP is about relationships: our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with our wider communities. In this sense, it shares many of the values associated with restorative practice, including dialogue, dignity, empathy, participation, and community.
AVP starts from the understanding that conflict is a normal part of human relationships, but violence is not inevitable. We have choices in how we respond, even though those choices may at times be very limited. The aim is not simply to acquire a set of conflict-resolution techniques, but to strengthen our individual and collective resources that can help us respond differently when conflict arises.
At the centre of AVP is the concept of “Transforming Power”: an openness to the possibility that situations do not have to remain as they are. People can draw on resources within themselves, from others and from the world around them to respond to conflict in ways that do not cause further harm. This does not mean assuming that every situation will have a positive outcome, but rather holding open the possibility of change. That sense of possibility is also fundamental to restorative practice. Without hope that people, relationships or circumstances can change, there is little reason to enter into the difficult work of reflection, accountability, dialogue or repair.
In Irish prisons, AVP workshops bring together people in custody and people from the community, both as participants and facilitators. Everyone sits in the same circle and takes part in exercises and reflections that are based on deep listening and building trust in the group. Our workshops are built on the principle that everyone brings experience, knowledge, strengths and wisdom to the group. While the facilitators structure and guide the process, they also remain open to learning from the group. People are invited, but never required, to speak, to share something of their experience and to listen without judgement to perspectives that may be very different from their own.
Creating a space where every voice is equal, does not mean ignoring power differences or pretending they are not there. On the contrary, it requires a higher awareness of differences in experience, opportunity, knowledge and institutional power. This is particularly important in a prison setting, where choice and autonomy are heavily constrained.
The emphasis on shared power and leadership extends beyond the workshops. We understand ourselves first as a community, rather than a service, in which agreements are developed collectively, decisions are reached through consensus, and everyone can contribute, learn and teach. Being listened to, having something to contribute, making choices and being taken seriously are a core element in affirming everyone’s dignity.
Fostering connection and building community
Creating a community grounded in trust and respect can make moments possible in workshops that feel distinctly restorative: an apology; someone recognising the impact their actions may have had on another person; a difficult story being heard without judgement; an unexpected friendship; or someone reaching out to a family member after a long period of disconnection. In one workshop, for example, a community-based participant spoke about the impact of a burglary on her home while sitting in a circle with people who had themselves been convicted of burglary. Having already built a relationship with her, hearing about her experience opened up a different understanding of the impact their actions may have had.
There is another part of AVP that can easily disappear when we describe it using terms such as conflict transformation, restorative practice or nonviolence: there can be a surprising amount of laughter. AVP workshops can involve deep reflection, difficult experiences and challenging conversations. But they are also intentionally fun. People laugh, play games, and share food. Community is built through positive shared experiences, friendship, humour, and kindness. Particularly in environments where opportunities for these experiences may be limited, joy itself can have a restorative quality. When members of our community were recently asked to capture the essence of AVP, one response was “togetherness and joy in the unlikeliest spaces”.
More than a workshop
As many restorative practitioners would experience, people who remain involved with AVP over time sometimes describe it less as something they have learned and more as something that has become part of how they move and relate in the world: how they encounter others, approach conversations and disagreements, understand their own reactions, or respond when conflict emerges.
In prisons, facilitators and former participants have described using AVP approaches informally in conflicts on prison landings and encouraging others to find different ways through difficult situations. In one prison, participants even began using “AVP” as a verb: when conflict arose, the invitation became, “Let’s AVP it”.
AVP and restorative practice share many values and ideas, even if they sometimes use different language or approaches. Restorative practice offers specific question guides and processes that can enrich AVP and the skills of AVP facilitators, particularly when responding to specific incidents of harm or facilitating difficult conversations. AVP, in turn, brings decades of experience in experiential learning, community-building, consensus and shared leadership, including creating opportunities for meaningful interaction across significant differences. There is much that the two approaches can continue to learn from one another.
If you want to get involved with AVP, we would love to hear from you!
Email us at [email protected] and join one of our upcoming information sessions to learn more about our work.
