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Welcome to

Projects for a Civil Society

an NGO dedicated to nonviolence, compassion,
empathy & trauma recovery

We at Projects for a Civil Society are dedicated to reducing suffering in the world. We do this by healing trauma, reducing violence, and  increasing compassion, community connection and empathy. We help others learn how draw upon their own experiences to develop skills in these areas.

We are dedicated to making our communities safer more enjoyable places, whether that be in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our city or the world at large.

AVP in Prison: from Blaze Nowara .

You cannot teach empathy and compassion from a lecture podium, from a book or from online videos. Compassion and empathy need to be experienced.  Projects for a Civil Society runs various experiential facilitated processes where people are opened to experiencing compassion and empathy, and then taught communications and conflict skills to bridge differences and find common community.  We also train people and organizations to independently facilitate and implement any of our programs.

Help Increase the Peace, a program for teens

Current Projects

  • Alternatives to Violence Project – PCS is a local chapter for the Alternatives to Violence Project -USA. AVP has been working for 45 years and is now in over 50 countries and 30 states within the US.
  • Restorative Reentry – Communities of Belonging supports formerly homeless and incarcerated individuals with peaceful, holistic reintegration back into society. We build safe, trusting and caring connections along with access to practical, tangible resources so that marginalized individuals feel a sense of belonging, purpose and contribution.
  • Trauma Resiliency – PCS offers several programs in facilitated experiential trauma healing. PCS has plans to bring this work to youth, veterans, refugee communities,and other groups in our society that have suffered unusually high levels of trauma.
  • Restorative Circle Processes – PCS has facilitators trained in Restorative Circles by Dominic Barter out of Rio de Janeiro. This process has many uses to resolve conflicts and restore communities.