A Little about NVC and Me

As you will know if you read and listen to my blog posts, I am the founder of the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence.  We hold the Blogging Carnival every year as part of the Week of Nonviolence with Black Women for Positive Change.  

I am passionate about Nonviolent Communication (NVC).  I have published many blog posts about NVC and interviewed a number of NVC practitioners.  You can read some of my most recent blog posts here. 

I first came across NVC in or around 2003, when I read Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg.  This book really changed my life and changed me as a person.  I subsequently attended several NVC trainings, and now I lead workshops in the community. 

We are experiencing an upsurge of murder and other violence in the UK, and this is touching my neighbourhood in South London, as well as many other places.  Both gun crime and knife crime are on the increase, and this particularly affects our own Black youth.  Obviously, I am very upset about this, and I am sure you are, too. 

NVC is a practical solution.  We can end violence though using NVC skills.  We keep telling each other the situation is terrible, it's awful.  In every conversation I have with people around my local area, and across London, we always say it's terrible, it's horrible.  But that's not enough.  We need to end the violence.  We need to have the skills to do this.  

NVC has had a powerful effect on me as a person.  I blogged about this in Why I Am Committed to Nonviolence, and I shall blog more about this.  But for now, I am blogging about the violence all around us, the bullying in our schools, the violent behaviour of our Black youth.  NVC offers a solution.  It's often about prevention.  And EMPATHY is at the heart of NVC.  Ending violence starts with ourselves - with us, with you and me.  It starts with the inner work we need to do.  

The violence affecting our young people has to stop.  This has to stop.  If you agree, comment "Yes!" below.  And please share this with your networks.  Thanks.  

See also:  Why I Am Committed to Nonviolence.  

Which Children Are Most Likely to Bring Weapons to School?

Is Your Child at Risk of Knife Crime?

I saw this blog recently:  Do You Know Which Students Are Most Likely to Bring Weapons to School? 

It's the children who are being bullied, or at risk of being buillied - the ones who feel they have to defend themselves - who are most likely to take a knife or gun to school.  

This is true in the UK as well.  They discussed this on The Wright Stuff a couple of weeks ago.  And I know someone in London whose son was running away from a bully, who ended up being arrested and imprisoned on a "joint enterprise" charge.  This is just one way our Black youth are filling up the prisons.  One more way the criminal justice system targerts our communities.  

We MUST help our young people find nonviolent solutions to these problems.  If you have read my book Success Strategies for Black People, you know that Nonviolent Communication (NVC) can help to turn situations around - including situations of extreme violence.  

If your child is at risk of becoming involved with violence, knife crime, gun crime or other risky situations, you need to learn NVC.  This can make a huge difference and may even save your child's life.  

To find out more about NVC, and for more NVC resources, click here to download my new ebook Affirmations for Parents.