founders
honorary council
board of directors
staff
volunteers

• Jay Jackson, Executive Director
• Dow Gordon, Inside Prisons Program Manager
• Ruby Phillips, Part-Time Staff
• Katie Talbot, Volunteer Coordinator
• Keith Brooks , Community Program Manager
• Verne Garvie, Office Administrator

Dow Gordon

At 19, I was on a county prison "pea" farm in Texas.  My arrest record spans every decade from the 1950's through the 1990's, including convictions for narcotics trafficking and weapons violations in Texas, Washington and Canada.  At that time I believed violence was a practical response to what I interpreted as oppression, and my intention was to ‘strike back’ at a world I perceived as hurtful and treacherous.  I assumed poverty in my inner being and avoided meaningful connection with others, keeping my life and interactions on a surface level.  I lived for excitement, without concern for people, meaning or inner peace.  I believed that conflict was the ‘natural’ state of human interaction and that emotions and needs (in the NVC sense) were for weak or irrational individuals.

While awaiting trial in 1995, and then later in prison, I stepped onto a spiritual path (mindfulness practice), primarily as a rebellious response to living in circumstances where I was largely powerless.  Over time this self-awareness and centering practice allowed me to begin seeing who I really am; rather than what I thought I was.  In 1999 at a Monroe, WA prison, Lucy Leu introduced me to NVC.  I recognized NVC as a “nuts and bolts” approach to generating more compassion and wholeness in my heart.  NVC has provided me with a ‘map’ that allows me to move from my reactive thinking to my true core self -- and then to connect with and act from my highest values.  From the beginning, NVC has expanded and enhanced my connection to myself and others.  Mindfulness practice, NVC and the Freedom Project enable me to contribute to and share in a world I never imagined existed -- a homeland where I am free to embrace all of who I am and experience an enduring gratitude for my human family.

Today, I’m committed to sharing NVC with prisoners in a manner that inspires them to empower themselves.  When I walk into prisons with this intention, all the rest is strategy.  When prisoners learn the power of choice, they can meet their needs in ways that better serve themselves and others; our world becomes a safer, more peaceful place for all.  When prisoners discover their internal freedom and ability to step out of their mental prisons, then speak and act from their hearts, their freedom becomes our freedom.  When prisoners recognize that they are part of our larger community (even those who will never leave prisons alive), our entire human community is enriched by their participation. 

It is within that ‘spiritual space’ toward which NVC points us, which includes and embraces the interconnectedness of all people, where trainings become most inspiring.  When people experience an enhanced sense of safety, acceptance and inclusion, they are much more likely to connect with the consciousness of NVC, rather than simply the intellectual model.  In order to support participants’ experiential connection to the energy of that spiritual space where every human being knows they have a full and equal place at our human table, I try to come from that place of centered awareness with a conscious intention of holding open the door to that space for others to move into.  See our website: at www.freedom-project.org for information regarding the Restorative Justice model that Freedom Project shares with prisoners and community residents.

After working for years with Freedom Project, a project of CNVC, I have a strong and growing intention to take what I’ve learned from others, and from sharing NVC and mindfulness practice in prisons, and offer that into more effective training for our larger community.  Freedom Project’s work supports safer communities as well as healing for both perpetrators and victims of violence.  I am reflecting deeply on how my learning from prison work can be translated into forms useful for people who have never experienced prisons.  In addition to my on-going work with Freedom Project, I’m also collaborating with other Northwest trainers to nurture deeper bonds and more effective support among our trainer’s community.