AVP got its start in Maryland in 1988, thanks to the initiative of Felisicimo Martin and John Huffington, men who were at the time incarcerated at the now closed state penitentiary in Baltimore, and the support of outside facilitators from Maryland, New York and Virginia. The two men, with growing outside support, notably from facilitators at the Adelphi Friends Meeting, then launched workshops at the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup, where a Johns Hopkins study was conducted on the effectiveness of AVP. Indeed, AVP's impact was credited with avoiding a riot in 1997 by the warden at Jessup Correctional Institution, where numerous men had taken AVP workshops and become facilitators since 1990. AVP-MD's westward movement began at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown in 1991. The Youth Detention Center in Baltimore became our newest program in 2018, championed by its correctional staff. Today, the pandemic notwithstanding, AVP-MD runs 8 programs in 7 institutions, for men, women, and youth. AVP-MD also runs workshops outside of incarceration facilities. Our first virtual workshop was a Basic to support the launch of AVP-DC in 2020. We are delighted to co-host this gathering with AVP-DC and share the love of the DMV!

Since the spring of 2020, Gerry Fitzgerald, an elder of Friends Meeting of Washington who had carried his AVP experiences from Ireland with him for years, connected with others at the meeting to pass on the spark of his enthusiasm. In July 2020, AVP-DC became an official Taskforce under the Peace & Social Concerns Committee of the Quaker Meeting. Despite the pandemic forcing all activities into virtual mode, we continued to grow and build momentum as a new chapter. Having started with virtual workshops, we continue to appreciate the support of nationwide facilitators. It really does take a community and AVP-DC is honored to have facilitators from Maryland, Oregon, New York and California support the blooming facilitator foundation in DC. The growing group would like to create opportunities for youth to learn and become involved with AVP. We are focusing on creating relationships with other community groups committed to peace and justice. We look forward to hosting, with AVP Maryland, facilitators in our home of Washington DC.