Ben Slothower

After taking a couple classes with Sandra I started the NVC course at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville with her and a couple other volunteers. The vast majority of our class members came from chaotic, violent family situations. As the weeks went by, in our classes, we experience how these students start to see the possibility of living a new and different kind of life, one marked by empathy and connection rather than by violence and delusion. 

There are “Aha moments”, when the truth of NVC came home to them and made sense in a visceral new way. We started hearing about how our class members relations both in the prison and with their families by phone, were changing for the better. At the same time, I saw the same changes happening in my own life. 

In the second year of classes, Sandra offered us volunteers the opportunity to start helping with the teaching. There’s no better way to learn than by teaching. This has been a great experience for me; one I hope to continue for a long time. This program is so effective that the parole board has considered making it essential for those seeking parole in the Dept. Of Corrections.