If one believes that “it takes a village to raise a child,” it follows that without attending to their internal village, schools will have difficulty raising children. – John Knight
AVP has 47 years of experience working in over 60 countries. In many schools AVP has brought quick substantial change in the school culture. Working in schools and prisons, we are dismantling the school to prison pipeline from both ends!
If this interests you about the potential for schools you are involved with, reach out to us at schools@projectsforacivilsociety.org
Post-covid many schools are straining to deal with lost social emotional skill development, and resulting increased violence and chaos. These problems have many teachers thinking of leaving their placements or even the profession. See this NEA News report:
Violence, Threats Against Teachers, School Staff Could Hasten Exodus from Profession
and this APA Study:
Violence Against Educators and School Personnel: Crisis During COVID
AVP is the perfect tool to build community in ways that bring substantial healthy school culture change with resulting violence reduction, increased productive instructional time, and increased graduation rates and grades.
In this troubled Philadelphia middle school AVP reduced police calls from 138/year to 15:
AVP returned to this charter school system in 2013 to hold workshops for three schools for the first four days of classes. Seventy facilitators came to deliver twenty-seven simultaneous workshops for 450 students! That quarter’s newsletter covered the experience.
The full text is here: www.thetransformer.us/13-4.pdf#zoom=100
In another middle school a principal says an AVP derived program and Conflict Resolution took fights from over 100 a year to one! (At 2:48 of this video)
The Santa Barbara School District sent students facing suspension and expulsion to AVP. Here is what they say about the results:
While administrators sometimes see these sorts of social emotional skills as ancillary to academics, educators realize that soft skills make hard skills available and the reduction in class disruptions leads to more productive instructional time.
On the research side, AVP has been shown to sharply reduce Trait Anger (one’s general anger level or anger “thermostat setting”). In a study with jailed veterans AVP reduced trait anger from 22% above normal to 15% below normal. And follow-on research shows these drops were sustained two years out!
Aside from reductions in violence and bullying, AVP is especially powerful at building connection, inclusivity, and community. These reductions in fighting and bullying come about because AVP works to establish a strong sense of community that includes everyone.
As we come back together from covid lockdowns and remote learning, students have lost much of their social skills and sense of connection and community. AVP can reestablish this quickly.
AVP works also to build resilience and overcome trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences.
Here’s some articles on AVP used to address Adverse Childhood Experiences:
Part 1 (of 3) Do you want an answer to ACEs? https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/do-you-want-an-answer-to-aces
Part 2 -Do you want an answer to ACEs? Playing the Mirror Neurons Like a Harp https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/part-2-do-you-want-an-answer-to-aces-playing-the-mirror-neurons-like-a-harp
Part 3 -Do you want an answer to ACEs? How do they do that? https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/part-3-do-you-want-an-answer-to-aces-how-do-they-do-that