Development & History of the Active Non Violence Group

ANVG’s core concepts and program were developed during founder Kevin Richardson’s tenure as the Director of the recreation program at a high risk supportive housing facility. Early in his term, Kevin was asked to create and conduct a violence-response curriculum for the program’s staff because of his impressive and effective responses to numerous violent episodes at the facility.

Very early in his career aiding formerly homeless populations and individuals in crisis, it became clear that while he continuously found himself challenged with confrontations and violent situations, there were no clear and practical clinical tools to deal with violent behavior from the population being served.

As an experienced martial arts and self defense instructor, he was able to use his own training and experience to design systems for appropriate aggression management. After offering his program in-house over a period of several months, Kevin codified his courses into a comprehensive system that is practical for people of any age, gender or ability that addressed the realities, requirements and legal considerations of the social services field.

Word of the trainings, aptly called Non Violent Response to Aggressive Behavior ^TM, spread, and he presented them at hospitals, supportive housing programs and social services agencies throughout the New York area as a community service with the help of his Martial Arts students. With independent review, evaluation and input from a board of consultants in law enforcement, medicine, social work and psychiatry, the Active Non Violence Response Trainings have continued to grow in scope and renown.

At the urging of the head of the psychiatry department of a major city hospital, The Active Non Violence Group, LLC, was formed as a company committed to providing cost effective and realistic training in the prevention and management of aggressive behavior in potentially volatile work environments.