Awash with Trust
We were doing a Training for Facilitator’s workshop –- and we were walking on eggs. For the first time ever in this AVP workshop we were alone in the entire building for the weekend. The nearest correctional officer was in a small separate building several floors above us and could not leave his post to check on us...
Being a Man
Generous George was talking to newly trained facilitator Jumping Jim about how he handles his friends on the yard around AVP. Jim didn’t feel he could be on a team without jeopardizing his relationship with his homies. George explained “I’m not going to lie, I still have gang ties, but when the brothers ask me about this workshop I tell them this for me as a man.”
Leaving the Gang
An experience that stands out vividly; My first facilitation was a Basic AVP training inside Heman J. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. I didn't know what to expect, but somehow was completely surprised by the beautiful faces, hearts and souls of the young gang members we encountered...
Metamorphosis
One of my great joys in working prison workshops is the unfolding of people and their willingness to open up and shine. Friday evening, during our first session, everyone comes into the room with a wary attitude. Sits down, doesn’t talk, crosses their arms, wanting to be proven right that this is just some dumb workshop...
Two Lifers
Two male inmates made a beeline for me as I stood alone at the edge of the classroom during the final session of a Basic workshop in Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. Unlike others who milled around during the break, these men – one black, one Hispanic - made eye contact and moved very purposefully toward me. What’s this about, I wondered briefly...
The Warden
After some years of AVP at San Quentin prison the facilitating team (both inmates and street people) realized that we wanted to have a special workshop just for facilitators. So we planned for it and got it all set up and arrived at the venue eager to go...