Here is detailed information about who you can contact in your area so you can become involved in AVP-NH.
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Who to Contact:
AVP-NH CoordinatorsIf you are interested in getting involved with AVP on any level — to simply participate or to ultimately facilitate — you must first participate in a Basic Workshop.
It is AVP policy that there are no monetary charges for anyone to attend any AVP workshop held in a correctional facility. AVP-NH also currently does not impose a fee for participation in youth workshops.
To get everything started, just follow these two simple steps:
- Check out the upcoming schedule (if you haven't already) for the date and facility at which you would like to attend your Basic Workshop. (Note — you can click anywhere on the words "upcoming schedule" and see the schedule — to get back to this page, click on your browser's "back" button.)
- Email, phone, or write to the appropriate facility coordinator below, providing your name, address, and a home and/or work telephone number as well as any other information your believe necessary for return contact. Also be prepared to provide your social security number and date of birth — these are necessary for your being cleared to enter any correctional facility. For your convenience, you need only click below in the box containing the appropriate coordinator's name in order to email the correct facility coordinator.
The following directions are available in Acrobat PDF format:
(Note: to download directions, right-click and select "Save Target As")
What to Expect
When Attending a WorkshopOutside participants bring much to a workshop: just by their presence — a message that they care, that they recognize inmates as fellow humans, that the inmates have not been "written off" by all of society. Outsiders add diversity to the exercises. As a participant, you will also find completing the workshop to be an extremely rewarding experience.
Outside participants need to be registered for the workshop with the appropriate facility coordinator (see them listed above) no later than three weeks before the Friday on which the workshop begins. This is because the inmates on the waiting lists need to be informed at least a week ahead of the workshop whether they will be participating or not. Inmates also have to make sacrifices to participate in AVP, and number one is giving up their visits for that weekend. They need to write and notify potential visitors that they will not be available. Visitors sometimes travel hundreds of miles without notice, assuming that inmates are always available during the regular visiting hours. Also, most inmates have jobs and/or classes. They need to let their supervisors or teachers know that they need Friday off. Finally, before each workshop, we need to write a letter to the prison administration informing them of the names of the prospective outside participants, and the administration needs to receive and process that in a timely matter.
If you have registered far in advance, but as the workshop approaches you find you are unable to participate, please notify your contact no later than three Fridays before the first day of the workshop.
If you live too far from the prison to commute during the workshop, contact the appropriate facility coordinator at least a month ahead of the workshop and we will try to assist you.
On the first day of the workshop, Friday, the facilitation team will meet at the facility at a planned place and time. As a new participant, you will always be entering the facility with experienced facilitators. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The team is usually escorted into the facility as a group. The only thing you need is a state approved picture ID, preferably your driver's license. You will not be allowed into the facility if you do not have such an ID with you. Do not bring anything with you that you do not absolutely need. Facility staff will hold your ID while you are inside. You will not need to bring in anything else. It is easiest to lock your belongings in your car. In some facilities, you might have to go through a metal detector.
Workshop hours are planned during the day through early evening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The actual times may vary among the facilities.
Throughout the weekend, do not give anything to any inmate and do not accept anything from any inmate. Our policy is: "Nothing in — nothing out." It is a felony to introduce contraband into the prison!
Be sure your car is fully locked up when you leave it, otherwise the staff will find you later and take you out to do so.
The facilities provide meals for outside participants during the workshop. Vegetarian meals are available. Make this wish known first thing Friday morning.
The best results are obtained by looking at the workshop weekend as though it was a retreat from your usual life. Leave all your notions of the prison outside the doors when you enter the facility. We have never had anyone from the community who did not find it an extremely illuminating experience and thoroughly enjoy their Basic workshop! Sign up right now!
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Updated on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 12:28 pm
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