Volunteer for AVP
Anyone can learn to facilitate prison and community workshops. Experience the joy of your own personal growth as well as making a difference in many others' lives. See AVP Workshops for dates and locations of community workshops. See What is AVP? for more information on the program. Click here for VolunteerMatch.

Supporting AVP
Not everyone wants to be a facilitator, but anyone can support the work of AVP. Here are some ways to be an AVP supporter:

• Immediate needs
• Sponsor a workshop in your community
• Introduce AVP to your local organization with a mini-workshop
• Support an AVP prison program
• Offer overnight hospitality for facilitators leading a workshop in your community.
• Provide food for facilitators, community or inmate participants at workshops.
• Make available a site for holding workshops.
• Contribute financially toward scholarships or to the support of AVP workshop materials, travel expenses, or promotion.

IMMEDIATE NEEDS
All non-profit organization need financial support which, of course, is welcome. Specific needs arise that don't require money, here are some today:

• Overnight housing for volunteers coming to the following areas: El Centro, Blythe, Tehachapi, Chowchilla, Salinas/Soledad, Vacaville, Susanville, Jamestown
• Wood Tinker Toys with 65+ pieces (used are just fine)
• Newsprint, flip chart paper
• Felt pens
• Opportunities to tell your service club about AVP

Contact AVP for any of these opportunities.

SPONSOR A WORKSHOP IN YOUR COMMUNITY

• FOR WHOM: AVP maintains an active program conducting workshops for community groups including churches, Quaker meetings, drug and alcohol counseling programs, parolee programs, schools, Scouts, youth programs, agency staff, correctional institution staff, and whatever your group might be
• TIME REQUIRED: AVP Community Workshops normally require about 20 hours over a contiguous two or three-day period: usually a Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday until mid-afternoon. There are many ways to arrive at the requisite hours, which are adjusted to meet the needs of the sponsoring community.
• COSTS: All fees from participants at community workshops are used for materials and supplies to provide free AVP workshops in schools and prisons. AVP regularly provides scholarships to those who would find it a financial hardship to pay a full workshop fee($35-$100)
  Trained AVP volunteer-facilitators provide all the training!
• RESPONSIBILITIES: The three tasks that workshop sponsors agree to undertake as part of their own outreach to the community are:
  • Provide a working space
    For a large workshop, a room which comfortably holds up to 20 participants and four facilitators seated in a large circle on armless chairs, with room outside the circle for 4 tables. A smaller workshop can be held with 12 participants and three facilitators.
    (We put up quite a few newsprint charts, so lots of wall space is certainly a plus.)
  • Promotion to your constituencies and the community
    AVP provides you with master copies of informative brochures, posters, press releases, and other printed materials. Your commitment is to let your group know about the workshop, as well as how to enroll. Consider also promoting the workshop to the surrounding community. Past experience shows that diversity among participants makes for a most satisfying workshop experience. Enrollment ideally needs to be no less than 12 and no more than 20 participants.
  • Coffee Breaks - Light Meals - Hospitality
    During any late afternoon /evening session, it is customary to break 45 minutes for a light evening meal. For daytime sessions, normally the break is an hour for lunch as well as 15 minutes in mid-morning and mid-afternoon for a coffee / soda. Some co-sponsors keep a coffee pot going all day. Providing meals and break refreshments is appreciated. Many sponsoring groups arrange for overnight hospitality for participants or facilitators traveling from a distance too great for reasonable daily commuting.

MINI-WORKSHOP
Designed to introduce AVP to a group in a 1-1/2 to 2 hour session, these tastes of AVP can also be provided to a service or business organization in longer or shorter times. These lively and informative sessions make good meeting programs.

SUPPORTING AN AVP PRISON PROGRAM
A prison program is most effective when workshops are offered by local people at least monthly in a nearby prison, Prison program support is likely to involve:

• Sponsoring community workshops several times a year or some aspect such as registration, promotion, or food.
• Providing overnight hospitality for out-of-town trainers
• Acceptance of donations and disbursement of funds for the program; checking account and non-profit status
• Establishing a community presence for AVP

Additional aspects might be helpful:

• Quaker Meetings and other religious groups providing spiritual support
• Research on workshops’ impact
• General moral support as facilitators interface with prison staff
• Familiarization of your group with the local prison through tours

SUPPORT AVP FINANCIALLY
What might your donation buy?

• $10 Printing flyers to promote a workshop
• $25 Snacks for an AVP workshop
• $35 Sponsor a scholarship to a Basic Workshop
• $50 Buy Tinker Toys or workshop materials
• $90 Mailing to potential participants in a community
• $75 Provide overnight lodging where donated hospitality is not available to traveling facilitators
• $100 Assist in transportation costs for facilitators traveling a distance
• $200 All the materials for a workshop kit and the box to store or carry it

Contact a Local Group directly to donate…
or send checks made out to AVP California and mail to:

P.O.Box 3294
Santa Barbara, CA 93130

or call 800/905-6765 to discuss your contributions.

Please contact a Local Group directly. Or contact Pat with any questions or to arrange for a meeting to provide more information about AVP.