WHAT
IS HIPP
HIPP,
or Help Increase the Peace Project, is a program of the American
Friends Service Committee which teaches non-violent approaches
to conflict resolution and social change. Through three-day
workshops and follow-up activities, young participants build
skills for solving conflicts without violence, analyze the effect
of societal injustice on their lives and the lives of others,
and work on taking action for positive, nonviolent personal
and social change.
The
three HIP workshops - Basic, Advanced, and Training for Facilitators
- are designed for increasing levels of skill development. Participants
have the opportunity to complete the series and become HIP facilitators
themselves. Follow-up activities are open to participants at
all levels of the workshop series.
All
of the HIPP workshops use participatory activities and discussions
to help participants build community, develop interpersonal
skills, analyze the social forces which contribute to violence,
and envision the steps that would lead to a more just world.
Follow-up activities help participants move from envisioning
personal and social change, to taking action for change.
THE
EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE
Growing
up in America has never been easy, but today it seems like walking
through a mine field. Young people are facing more violence
than previous generations, and with the proliferation of guns,
more of the violence is deadly. Before they reach the age of
21, many young people have lost friends, neighbors, classmates,
and family members to violence. They face violence at the hands
of parents and family members, boyfriends and girlfriends, friends
and rivals, and strangers. Many young people continue the cycle
of violence and are both the victims and the perpetrators. For
many young people, violence is the only apparent option with
which to confront problems.
Eric
Wissa, one of the initiators of HIP, noted that violence is a
growing concern for young people everywhere: "Violence is
now an epidemic. No longer just an 'inner city' crisis, it has
become a major concern for all communities. Young people are more
commonly using violence as a solution to their problems and think
very little of the consequences." The statistics support
what Wissa and others have seen and heard. Teenagers are increasingly
both the victims and the perpetrators of violent crime. In 1994,
a justice Department study found that youth ages 12-17 are more
likely to be victims of violence than any other age group. And
from 1980-1991, the number of juveniles arrested for homicide
increased by 60%, compared with a 5.2% increase among adults.
In
response, society is creating more severe consequences to deter
violent crime. Politicians are elected based on promises to "crack
down on violent felons." The policy of "three strikes
and you're out" for life is gaining popularity, as the country
struggles with the question of how to respond to violence. Prisons
are filled to overflowing with a disproportionate number of people
of color, and more prisons are built every year.
Still,
the violence continues. The harsh penalties don't address the
deeper needs of youth and the root causes of violence. Politicians
and the media would have us believe that youth who are caught
up in the culture of violence are the 'cold-blooded killers.'
Wissa sees another reality: "Last year, I attended several
funerals of young people who I was fortunate to meet through my
work. All of these teenagers were intelligent, capable, strong
future leaders of our community who unfortunately got on the wrong
path and paid the highest price for their mistakes - their lives."
As teacher Phillip Kay notes in his Introduction to Things Get
Hectic: Teens Write About the Violence that Surrounds Them, "As
a society, we seem to be primarily concerned about the damage
teenagers ... have the potential to inflict on us. If we ever
want to do something about violence in America, we should begin
by trying to understand what it is like to be 13 years old with
bombs [and guns] going off all around you." We need to engage
young people in a dialogue about the problems and together create
the solutions.
THE
SOCIAL CONTEXT OF VIOLENCE
Before
we can take action, we need to take a closer look at the problem.
Geoffrey Canada, violence prevention activist and author of Fist
Stick Knife Gun, sees the rise of violence among youth within
the context of a declining sense of community: "There was
violence [when I was growing up in the South Bronx in the late
fifties], but not the casual homicidal violence of today that
has claimed tens of thousands of our teens. There was pain and
teenage angst, but there was also a community of family and neighbors
to help heal young hearts and spirits." The loss of community
is not just an urban problem. In "Listening Project"
interviews in rural West Virginia and Massachusetts, residents
noted that neighbors are increasingly isolated from one another
and have called for increased community involvement as an important
step in confronting violence and prejudice.
The
culture of violence has taken shape within an atmosphere in which
options have been cut off for a great number of people. The economic
picture for many people in the country is devastating; and the
situation is getting worse. The gap between the rich and the poor
is widening. Corporations are closing factories and moving jobs
overseas, leaving workers unemployed, with skills that are no
longer valued. In poor areas, severely underfunded schools produce
high school graduates who find that their diploma means next to
nothing in the job market. The jobs that are available are often
minimum wage service jobs, which don't provide enough money to
allow workers to meet their basic financial obligations, and hold
little promise for advancement. It's not hard to see the result
of this bleak picture: with no other options, many people are
selling sex, drugs, and guns, joining an underground economy which
is often self-regulated with violence. This dangerous life on
the street is not one that people choose freely, Luis Rodriguez,
author of Always Running: Gang Life in L.A., believes: "I've
talked to enough gang members and low-level dope dealers to know
they would quit today if they had a productive, liveable-wage
job. You'll find people who don't care about who they hurt, but
nobody I know wants to sell death to their children, their neighbors
and friends. If there was a viable alternative, they would stop.
If we all had a choice, I'm convinced nobody would choose la vida
loca, the "insane nation" - to "gang bang."
But it's going to take collective action and a plan."
As
the country begins to realize the depth of the economic devastation
of global capitalism, people are looking for someone to blame.
In the public discourse, welfare recipients, immigrants, communities
of color, gays and lesbians, and young people have been scapegoated
and blamed for a litany of problems. Recent welfare reforms
and anti-immigrant legislation have codified into law this distrust
of those who have been most harmed by economic conditions. Rodriquez
reflects on this process of blaming the victim: "What to
do with those whom society cannot accommodate? Criminalize them.
Outlaw their actions and creations. Declare them the enemy,
then wage war. Emphasize the differences - the shade of skin,
the accent in the speech or manner of clothes. Like the scapegoat
of the Bible, place society's ill on them, then `stone them'
in absolution. It's convenient. It's logical. It doesn't work."
In this atmosphere of scapegoating, it isn't surprising that
membership in organized hate groups and white supremacist groups
are on the rise. Even in communities where hate groups have
not organized, the atmosphere of intolerance can easily feed
violence along racial, ethnic and cultural lines. In 1995, the
FBI counted 7,947 hate crimes in the United States, up from
5,852 in 1994. Many more of these crimes go unreported. If the
world that young people grow up in seems hopeless, the youth
themselves are calling for change and finding reasons for hope.
Despite the cry that young people today are apathetic, many
young people care about their communities and are getting involved
in finding solutions. In Wissa's words, "Just like adults
want changes, young people are also tired of living in fear
and confusion and want to know what they can do." Youth
and adults are looking for alternatives to violence, seeking
out positive role models, identifying the root causes of the
problems, and finding ways to make changes in their own communities.
Juan Azize, a young writer who has lost three friends to "senseless
violence," encourages his peers to change their personal
responses to violence. He writes: "We should all try to
calm down. Violence won't solve anything in the long run. We
have to grow up and realize there are other ways to solve a
problem- talking it out and mediating and sometimes even ignoring
it. We've got to try to remember a lot of kids are getting killed
over little problems that could have been easily solved."
But personal violence takes place in a social context. In addition
to "calming down," we must try to change the conditions
that lead to economic devastation, isolation, and hopelessness.
We must work together to create new options.
HIPP
combines serious, focused reflection with energetic, fun activities,
creating a balance that engages people. It starts with participants'
own experiences, and teaches skills in the context of real world
situations. It builds a heightened awareness among participants
of the need to reduce hatred and build understanding among different
social groups. It builds a community based on dialogue and encourages
participants to see each other as valuable resources for creating
change. It supports participants in becoming leaders and addressing
problems in their own communities.
HIP is an adaptable program. It is constantly evolving, as facilitators
respond to the needs of the participants and the community in
which they are working.
The
best way to understand the HIP Program is through the voices
of facilitators. Here is what they say:
"HIP
isn't preachy or self-righteous. It really does seek to engage
people where they're at, not where we'd like them to be.
"HIP
is a prevention program, in that it aims to help everyone to
learn to be empowered to resolve their everyday situations,
conflicts, and problems without getting to a point where they
lose their cool."
"HIP is a program in which people begin to realize their
own ways of dealing with conflict "
"HIP is a three-day, fun workshop about alternatives to
violence, dealing with prejudice and positive social change.
Lots of games and fun, with serious stuff too. HIP is not mediation.
It's not drive-by conflict resolution. It explicitly deals with
prejudice, gender, economic issues. It aims at positive change
and getting people interested in working on it "
"HIP is about changing self and [developing] new skills,
but then [it] challenges us to move beyond [ourselves] as active
participants in the community."
HIP is "about group and community change, not individual
change.
HISTORY
OF THE HIP PROJECT
In
1990, AFSC's Upstate New York Youth Empowerment Project developed
HIPP, modeling it after the successful Alternatives to Violence
Program (AVP) for prison inmates, developed by Quakers in 1975.
Following the tragic murder of a fourteen-year-old in Syracuse,
NY, and inspired by their experience with AVP, Erik Wissa and
Lisa Mundy introduced HIP as a pilot project in two Syracuse
schools. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Since that
first pilot program, requests for HIPP have come from many sections
of the community, and the program has spread across the country.
There are now HIPP workshops in New York, West Virginia, Maryland,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Missouri, Maine, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Florida, Georgia,
and Arizona. It has even become an international program, with
HIP workshops held in New Zealand and Australia. And it is still
growing!
HIPP
workshops were originally designed for middle and high school
participants, but they have been successfully adapted for participants
of all ages, in elementary schools, colleges, juvenile detention
centers and prisons, community youth centers, and activist and
service organizations.
HIPP's
PHILOSOPHY OF NONVIOLENCE
HIPP
begins with two assumptions: first, that conflict, while natural
to all human interaction, does not have to be destructive, but
can instead instigate positive change and growth. The second
assumption is that societal injustice lies at the root of a
great deal of violent conflict. HIPP therefore has a two-pronged
approach to nonviolence: changing attitudes towards conflict,
and addressing the injustices at the root of violence.
Most
children grow up surrounded by violence, and learn to see violence
and abuse of power as normal and effective responses to conflict.
Violence appears to be the only viable option for responding
to conflict. The main job of HIPP facilitators is to raise awareness
of the many options people actually have in a conflict. HIPP
teaches that conflict does not need to be avoided, and it doesn't
need to be met with violence. It can instead be dealt with directly
and constructively. In the ideal, conflicts can be resolved
with "win/win" solutions, ones in which everyone leaves
with their needs met.
Nonviolence
is not just a state of mind or an attitude towards conflict. It
is a commitment to actively seek to change the forces or situations
that degrade or oppress people. It is a commitment to address
violence at its roots. HIPP teaches that the best way to overcome
injustice is to come together as a community and turn to each
other as resources for change. This grassroots approach to ending
injustice emphasizes that change is possible if communities come
together and that each person has an important role to play in
the process.
Finding "win/win" solutions to conflict and working
as community to end injustice-these are not easy things to do.
They require skills which must be learned and practiced. Following
the lead of Children's Creative Response to Conflict (CCRC),
an organization which pioneered the teaching of conflict resolution
as a process for change, HIPP separates the skills of conflict
resolution into four "building blocks:" Affirmation
and Self-Esteem; Cooperation and Group Decision-Making; Communication;
and Conflict Resolution. HIPP also adds to the building blocks
Recognizing and Challenging Injustice. Skill-building activities
are interspersed with community-building games and training
techniques, to build trust within the group and reinforce the
idea that other people are often our greatest resource for addressing
the root causes of violence.
HIPP's
APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING
A
number of theories of education and social change have influenced
HIPP Following the ideas of educator john Holt, HIPP is structured
so that each participant feels significant and recognized, and
their interests become the basis of the learning. Growing out
of the Alternatives to Violence Program, HIPP facilitators recognize
that building self-esteem, compassion and trust are important
aspects of personal and social change. Another significant influence
is the theory of popular education, as it has been articulated
by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, Appalachian educator Myles
Horton, and others at The Highlander Research and Education Center
in Tennessee. Popular education, also called participatory emancipatory,
or democratic education, has been used around the world to promote
adult education, literacy, progressive community development and
social change. See "Making HIPP Hop: Notes for Facilitators,
From Facilitators" for a short summary of the basic tenets
of Freire's theory of education. Together, these philosophies
lead to a process of education that is respectful of and responsive
to the needs of participants, and overtly committed to the goal
of progressive social change.
The
HIPP Network is an affiliation of HIPP facilitators, staffed
by the AFSC. The Network organizes periodic "gatherings,"
during which facilitators get together to share new activities,
sharpen skills, and explore future directions for HIP The Network
also provides resources and assistance to groups and individuals
who wish to start a HIP Program. Call 410-323-7200 for more
information about the Network.
AFSC-
THE QUAKER COMMITMENT
TO
NONVIOLENT SOCIAL, CHANGE
HIP
is a program of the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit
peace and social justice organization. The American Friends Service
Committee was founded in 1917 as a practical expression of the
values of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Early activities
bore out the Quaker principles of nonviolence through providing
emergency relief to victims of World War I. Throughout its history
AFSC has maintained its deeply held belief in the inherent dignity
of every human being and sought to address both immediate effects
and root causes of violence, poverty, injustice and war through
emergency aid and long term development and education programs.
In 1947, the AFSC and British Friends Service Council received
the Nobel Peace Prize, on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends,
for humanitarian service and work for reconciliation. Whether
it was helping to replant devastated fruit orchards in post World
War I France, or supporting workers' rights in the coal fields
of Appalachia, throughout its history AFSC has played a significant
role in assisting victims of war, guaranteeing civil rights for
all people, and building community power to create social and
economic justice. Today, AFSC is working in the United States
and over twenty other countries in the areas of economic justice,
peace building, social justice, and youth work.
For
more information on AFSC's mission or programs, contact your local
office or the national office of AFSC, at 1501 Cherry Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19102, call 215-241-7000 or e-mail
afscinfo@afsc.org
