AVP NSW News

AVP and STARTTS partnership is expanding

AVP in Sydney has been working in partnership with STARTTS (the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors) since 2012. STARTTS provides psychological and psychosocial treatment and support to people healing from the scars of torture and refugee trauma, and who are rebuilding their lives in Australia. The partnership has helped increase the diversity of participants in AVP workshops and helped AVP become more aware or the impact of trauma and how to ensure our practice is trauma informed.

We are very pleased that the partnership between AVP and STARTTS is growing and now includes Newcastle. From May, the weekly open Basic on Wednesday evenings (5:30 – 8:00 pm) will be held the STARTTS training room. We are sure the partnership is going to have a positive impact on both groups.

STARTTS in Newcastle is at Unit 2E, 54 Clyde St, Hamilton North NSW 2292. The entrance for STARTTS is from the car park behind the Lifeline Op shop. Take the stairs or lift to the first floor, and go down the corridor (away from the Gym) to the STARTTS office. There is a bus stop for route 12 within a minute’s walk.

AVP NSW Annual Report for the Year 2023

_{Posted: 26 March 2024}

AVP continues to transform people’s lives by offering three levels of workshops – Basic, Advanced and Training for Facilitators (T4F) – exploring community building, affirmation, communication, cooperation and conflict transformation.  In 2023, we held workshops in:

• Sydney
  • Auburn in partnership with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), which supports  refugees and new arrivals
  • Castle Hill for the general community
  • Lurnea High School where 84% of the students speak a language other than English
• Newcastle
  • Broadmeadow in partnership with Recovery Point, which supports people recently out of prison or recovering from addiction
  • Hamilton South for the general community
• Central Coast
  • Dooralong Transformation Centre, a residential rehabilitation service for people recovering from addiction
• Online with people from NSW, interstate and even internationally

Number of in-person and online workshops and graduates (AVP NSW, 2023)

Workshop level	In person workshops	In-person graduates	Online workshops	Online graduates	Total Workshop	Total graduates
Basic	11	74	2	14	13	87
Advanced	5	41	1	7	6	48
T4F	2	12	1	7	3	19
Total	18	127	4	28	22	154

The AVP program at Lurnea High School continues to grow. With the support of Deputy Principal, Connie Karamitos (an AVP facilitator), Shanaz Razeen (an experienced Sydney facilitator) has been employed by the school to help implement AVP programs and to promote restorative practices. He is assisted by a teacher at the school Kate Clarkson (another experienced Sydney facilitator) who introduced AVP to the school.  A further 4 staff  are now trained facilitators with 5 more staff and 12 students being keen to complete a T4F in 2024. Feedback is positive and AVP will hopefully become an important part of the school.

We also facilitated 43 weekly open Basic sessions (where people can start any week) at Recovery Point and 18 in Hamilton South. At Recovery Point, 78 participants  have attended one or more sessions and, in Hamilton South, 19 people have attended one or more sessions.

We continue to have weekly Facilitator Friday sessions which are online training sessions for AVP facilitators.  As part of the Facilitators Friday we have started a community circle on the last Friday of the month which, from 2024, will act as a taster for anybody interested in AVP as well as being training for facilitators. Living AVP (previously called First Fridays) has continued to be held most weeks to explore Transforming Power and other key themes of AVP. Twelve facilitators from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia have attended Living AVP sessions in 2023, seven of them on a regular basis.  In 2024 they plan to meet on Zoom every 2nd Friday of the month with anybody who has completed a Basic workshop welcome to join them. They also have “user initiated” meetings on other weeks where any AVP facilitator who wishes to talk over an issue related to Living AVP can request a catch up. 

Over the 12 months, 32 facilitators have helped facilitate full workshops and a further 15 have helped with Living AVP, Facilitator Fridays or in some other way. Four NSW facilitators from NSW attended the AVP National Gathering, with a further 2 attending sessions online.  At least six NSW facilitators have been active internationally including convening committees; attending Community Conversations, the International AGM or other events; participating in AVP workshops in Central America;  and/or helping with writing manuals and other resources, translation or other tasks.

Jan de Voogd Peace Fund

We were very pleased to receive a grant of  nearly $60,000 from the Jan de Voogd Peace Fund. Jan (pronounced Yan, pictured above) was one of the founders of AVP NSW so it is wonderful that we can be part of his legacy. The grant is helping us “establish systems, processes and practices that allow us to transform into a professionally run (while maintaining our voluntary ethos), financially sustainable organisation that draws on best practices in governance, management and continuous improvement.”

The project will allow us to improve how we manage registrations, communication, record keeping and promotion; develop a strategic plan to ensure organisational and financial sustainability; explore ongoing funding sources; and build partnerships with other organisations. Through the funding we will also hold a state gathering of Facilitators in February 2024. Graeme Stuart (a long-time facilitator from Newcastle) has been employed 14 hours/week to work on the project.

Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation

We were one of 20 organisations (from over 100) to be shortlisted from an expression of interest to submit a full application to the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation (NPCF). NPCF funds projects aimed at improving community health and well-being for those most in need and at-risk young people, and improving the social wellbeing of the marginalised and isolated in our community. Unfortunately we were not successful, but are welcome to try again in 2024. As part of the application process we created a program logic which was shared with the AVP International Research Team. The program logic is available here.

Conclusion

We are grateful for our partners who support our work. In particular we want to acknowledge STARTTS, Samaritans Recovery Point, Lurnea High School and Dooralong Transformation Centre for offering workshops in partnership with AVP. Thank you for supporting our work. Our volunteers are the lifeblood of AVP and without them we could not continue. Thank you for all you do: we value and appreciate you all. We are also very thankful for everyone who has attended one of our workshops. The belief that everybody has something of value to offer, and that we are all teachers and learners is continuously reinforced as the facilitators continue to grow and develop through the groups we run. We thank you for your encouragement and inspiration.

AVP NSW
March 2024

2024 AVP NSW Facilitator Gathering

_{Posted: 1 December 2023}

Planning is well underway for the 2024 NSW gathering of AVP facilitators. If you are a NSW facilitator and haven’t registered yet, make sure you do as soon as you can to secure your free spot. Use our contact form to request details.

Jan de Voogd Peace Fund grant

_{Posted: 19 September 2023}

We are very pleased to announce we have received nearly $60,000 from the Jan de Voogd Peace Fund. Jan (pronounced Yan, pictured above) was one of the founders of AVP NSW so it is wonderful that we can be part of his legacy.

The grant will help us “establish systems, processes and practices that allow us to transform into a professionally run (while maintaining our voluntary ethos), financially sustainable organisation that draws on best practices in governance, management and continuous improvement.”

The project will involve things like improving how we manage registrations, communication, record keeping and promotion; developing a strategic plan to ensure organisational and financial sustainability; exploring ongoing funding sources; and building partnerships with other organisations.

The funding will also allow us to hold a state gathering of facilitators (our first for many years) in February. Graeme Stuart (a long-time facilitator from Newcastle) has been employed 14 hours/week to work on the project.

Annual Report of AVP NSW for 2022

_{Posted: 13 March 2023}