A dozen active programs are at the heart of the Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence.   
  
 
This is where the Board, the Volunteer Teams, the Steering Committee, the Staff and the Director come together to make a difference.

• A Season for Nonviolence

 
• Community Education and Advocacy 

 
• Community Healing Dialogues

 
• Empowering Communication

 
• It Begins With Me

 
• LA Bridges - Foshay Middle School

 
• Mapping Violence and Creating Change Curriculum

 
• Network for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence (NCPN)

 
• Nonviolence School Program

 
• Speakers Bureau

 
• Training for Educators 

 
• Youth Coalition 

The Center educates the public regarding the effectiveness of nonviolent ethics, principles and strategies for meeting the challenges we face in our families, communities and the world. Through presentations, public discussion, town halls, and community dialogues, The Center articulates the contribution that nonviolence can make to creating a just, humane and prosperous society. 
 

Community Healing Dialogues are a synthesis of facilitated dialogue and ceremony to heal emotional wounds, foster reflection and critical thinking, create empowering meaning out of crisis, and build community relationships. 
 

The Center has been funded to implement a pilot project, Empowering Communication workshops, designed for adult supporters and adolescents in foster care. Adult themes include: the power of intention, negative and positive self talk, creating an environment of respect, honoring emotions in dialogue, positive languaging and appreciation. Youth themes include: the relationship between beliefs, choices and actions, the power over the self, accountability and consequences. 
 

 The Center is a national trainer for teachers, community organizations, general public and youth. It Begins With Me, which can be provided in a variety of formats, facilitates an introduction to the core concepts of nonviolence education. Upon request, The Center can design training tailored to your community's specific needs. 
 

The Center provides anger management and conflict resolution training for the LA Bridges after school enrichment program at Foshay Middle School. 
 

The Mapping Violence and Creating Change curriculum uses a common scenario of violence among peers to achieve three objectives: to challenge the values, culture and patterns of violence in the teen culture, to explore the concepts of power, nonviolence, judgment, stereotypes and shared responsibility vs. blame, and to discover ways to break the cycle of violence. This curriculum is particularly effective for gang violence prevention. 
 

The NCPN has three immediate goals.   

Our first goal is to create an awareness in the local progressive nonviolent community that, collectively, we are the foundation for a culture of peace and nonviolence here in Los Angeles.  The United Nations is sponsoring the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, 2001-2010, coordinated by UNESCO and closely allied to UNESCO's massive ongoing Manifesto 2000, which has 75 million pledges so far.  The NCPN defines itself by the six pledges of the Manifesto 2000:   

• Respect the life and dignity of each human being without discrimination or prejudice
• Practice active nonviolence, rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological, economical and social, in particular towards the most deprived and vulnerable such as children and adolescents
• Share my time and material resources in a spirit of generosity to put an end to exclusion, injustice and political and economic oppression
• Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity, giving preference always to dialogue and listening without engaging in fanaticism, defamation and the rejection of others
• Promote consumer behavior that is responsible and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet
• Contribute to the development of my community, with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles, in order to create together new forms of solidarity 

Our second goal is to map the LA Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.  For this purpose, we are using Prof Linda Groff's analysis of concepts of peace.  The NCPN has begun the work of enlisting and mapping ALL the progressive nonviolent organizations of Greater Los Angeles according to Prof Groff's schema.  When complete, the database will provide a convenient web based directory of the Peace and Nonviolence community in LA, and the published results will be a basis for future organizing efforts.  Where are we strong, and where weak?  Where connected, and where are there gaps?   

Our third goal is foster linkages between these groups to strengthen the foundations for an LA Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.  In this effort, we are determined to use the internet extensively.  The web makes possible new forms of solidarity and is a practical way of connecting to the world Culture of Peace and Nonviolence movement. 
 

The Center develops educational tools for teaching nonviolence in the classroom. Its A Season for Nonviolence School Program, 64 Ways to Practice Nonviolence Curriculum and Resource Guide and companion 64 Ways to Practice Nonviolence bilingual poster are effective tools for building a community of nonviolence and peace in our schools. Program elements include needs assessment, staff training, a nonviolence curriculum, biweekly consultations with a Center liaison, participation in the annual SNV-LA campaign and evaluation of the program's success. 
 

The Center trains educators and youth facilitators, nationally, on the core concepts of nonviolence education and use of Center's curricula. In 2002, The Center will offer a three-salary point course for educators Creating a Community of Nonviolence integrating the principles of nonviolence across the curriculum, in classroom management and conflict resolution for youth and administrators. 
 

 In July, 2001, The Center sponsored Nonviolence Works Youth Conference for 270 youth, with 17 partnering organizations and members of the Youth Peace Coalition, for which The Center was honored by the LAUSD school board.