Welcome to SWIVL! Formed in 2003 as a 501(c)3, the Southwest Institute for ViolenceFree Learning (SWIVL) is a nonprofit organization established to respond to the growing state of violence and discord in our families, communities, nation, and world.
Our Vision: Changing Public Policy Through Personal Initiative. SWIVL works to create a ViolenceFree environment through personal investment. SWIVL is a network of educators, parents, activists, and researchers dedicated to creating ViolenceFree through the development of personal, social and political institutions that respect the life of all sentient beings.
Our Approach: SWIVL works with other public and private organizations to take a systemic approach to ending all forms of violence, including animal cruelty, child abuse, and domestic violence. All services provided by SWIVL increase personal and social capacity to accomplish goals and mobilize resources to promote a ViolenceFree environment.
Our Mission: SWIVL promotes the view that violence can be eliminated or mitigated through the development of a culture of success - beliefs and attitudes that encourage a personal progressive culture and social independent climate. Click here to find out more about the SWIVL view of violence. Click here to find out what SWIVL is doing right now!
ViolenceFree begins with animal cruelty. Each day, animal rights/protection organizations rescue and provide sanctuary for thousands of companion and farmed animals. Everyday, animal rights activists work long hours, advocating for legislation and promoting elected officials to reduce animal cruelty. We, who believe in compassion and the restoration of our humanity, commend these individuals and organizations. We are also graced by so many individuals, groups, and organizations that work tirelessly to reduce child abuse and domestic violence. These are the individuals and organizations that deserve our praise and most of all our gratitude.
The Challenge: The challenge today, however, is to recognize and act on the knowledge that despite the countless hours of dedication to reducing violence for all living, feeling beings and the millions of dollars contributed to organizations committed to reducing animal cruelty, child abuse, and domestic violence, violence is on the increase for humans and nonhuman animals alike. As quick as legislation is passed to reduce violence, those that would commit violent acts, are able to maneuver around the legal system to receive minimal punishment. Further, little evidence exists that public policy has either reduced violence or changed violent behaviors towards our most vulnerable and defenseless beings in society.
The SWIVL Calling: To reverse this trend, it is time to consider an alternative framework – one that constructs a new foundation for creating a violencefree political, economic, and social culture and climate for success. Factors driving a culture of success, including innovation, creativity, and enterprise, act in combination with a climate of freedom and self-reliance to create an environment where people can work to achieve their full potential. The interaction between a culture of success and a climate of freedom underpins the degree to which&people are able to achieve a state of ViolenceFree.
For too long, the animal rights/protection movement has concentrated on personal and social behaviors, ignoring the underlying beliefs why people are cruel and participate in oppressive acts. SWIVL promotes the view that we must focus on personal and social beliefs if we are to create a society where all sentient beings are respected and allowed to live in a state of freedom. In the long run, by pushing for more rules, regulations, and control, those in the animal rights/protection movement may be causing more harm than good to nonhuman animals.
The legal and legislative process will not end factory farms, puppy mills, and animal experimentation – only regulate them. Join with SWIVL to reverse the current trend of bureaucracy and regulations to promote a culture and climate of success for all. A culture of innovation and a climate of freedom reinforces the basic beliefs that the founders of the United States created through our constitutional democracy. The basic beliefs of compassion and respect for all sentient beings are in our political, economic, and social DNA. Join with SWIVL to construct a network of citizen activists committed to principles that will create a ViolenceFree culture of success.
ViolenceFree Culture of Success Principles
- Expand the Golden Rule to all sentient beings
- Emphasize the family unit as a major force for compassion
- Restore our public education system to a place of civility and the humane treatment of all sentient beings
- Focus on moral equivalency terms: there is good and evil in the world
- Promote self-defense as a primary deterrent to violence
These ViolenceFree Culture of Success Principles provide a set of guidelines to reach out to individuals and organizations that animal rights/protection advocates have heretofore generally considered to be unsympathetic to the protection and humane treatment of nonhuman animals. SWIVL contends that it’s time to expand relationships and reach out to all individuals and groups that support the view that personal responsibility, self-reliance, and independence are requisite conditions for a ViolenceFree society. It’s time to dismantle not only the animal rights/protection bureaucracy, which at times is self-promoting, but also deconstruct our ideas regarding how we create ViolenceFree.
Work with SWIVL to increase personal capacity and resilience in our families, schools, and communities. Become a SWIVL VOLUNTEER - virtually or onsite. Contact SWIVL to become involved in (1) developing school curriculum, (2) family guidance and activities, (3) community outreach to civic and social organizations, (4) working with various advocacy groups that promote personal responsibility, self-reliance, and independence, and (5) efforts to change public policy through personal initiative and action. If you would like to volunteer and work with SWIVL on site contact us at [email protected]
Violence takes place and grows in a controlling, oppressive environment. Violence is pervasive when individuals, organizations, and governments attempt to restrict and dominate personal freedom and independence. Violence for all sentient beings is reduced when people are able to express their humanity in a free and unrestricted fashion based on the Golden Rule. SWIVL believes that it’s time for animal rights/protection organizations and individuals to join together to restore society to a place where all life is respected and freedom and independence are maximized through a culture of success.
