Families Against Violence
Advocacy Network

Sharing Practices

The following practices and resources were shared at the annual FAVAN (Families Against Violence Advocacy Network) meeting held March 9-11, 2001, at Pallottine Renewal Center in St. Louis County, Missouri.  If you have practices you would like to share, please contact Jim Vogt at ppjnvogt@aol.com.

• Celebrate Diversity - Ten Ways to Stop the Hate, the video program "Long Night's Journey into Day, and Season for Nonviolence 64 Ways in 64 Days.     (From Sharon Taylor Wilson)

• Make the Peace Campaign  is a project of the Citizens and Youth Violence Intervention Council of Rochester MN.  It is a community wide proactive, positive peace initiative.  At the center of the campaign has been the FAVAN Peace Pledge.  It is comprehensive across organizations with multiple approaches.  The next focused collaborative will be media violence. (From Mary Vlazny)

• Mediation services offered by Ken and Gretchen Lovingood focus on couples and/or families.  They offer workshops, group presentations, and group demonstrations.

• Stop the Violence!  Educating Ourselves to Protect our Youth  is an ecumenical curriculum developed by Wendy Morris.  She also co-facilitates Healing Racism workshops and does workshops on other justice issues.

• Peace Camp projects (From MaryLynn Bell)

• Children as Peacemakers and Peacemaking at Home (family program).   Parents of children at the children's center volunteer to participate in a family peacemaking activity at home.  Each family receives a canvas bag filled with family friendly books, games, puzzles, classical music tapes, videos, read along books with tapes, etc.  They are encouraged to use the materials over a 2 week period to practice sharing family time together with peaceful activities.  (From Virginia Irving)

• Linda Heacock is working within the Quaker community to incorporate the Pledge and related programs/resources into religious education and family programs.

The Peace With Justice Program (Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church) is working to get resolutions passed by churches and church bodies, civic groups, and schools which ask for celebration of the Decade of Nonviolence, especially the use of the Pledge of Nonviolence (From Brenda Hardt)