Freedom Project Programs

The core of the Freedom Project training is a set of practices known as Nonviolent Communication (NVC). NVC is a highly respected social and educational movement founded by a clinical psychologist, Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, during the civil rights movement sharing common philosophical ground with the teachings of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr and other peacemakers.

Learning NVC allows a person to communicate with others in a positive, effective, and peaceful manner. NVC also teaches a person to examine and address the root issues leading to self-destructive and addictive behaviors. These are precisely the skills and experiences that most offenders lack. Because they have not developed the ability to communicate their needs effectively or empathize with others, offenders are often unable to function as a member of a healthy community.

A life of continued violence and re-offence by those who are incarcerated is all but guaranteed until these skills are learned. Little in the systems of probation and parole provides communication skills. The closest offering is the requirement of anger management treatment in those who have exhibit violence.

NVC does not “manage anger” it removes the need to have anger enter any communication. Those released from prison (Returnees) may receive encouragement to seek employment, may be required to submit to periodic drug testing, may have supervision from a case worker or parole officer, and be offered other state-subsidized services, but nothing - as far as we have been able to discover - is offered that addresses the fundamental lack of awareness, self-knowledge, and ability to function as a community member. It is this disconnection that must be addressed, in our opinion, before a person can begin to lead a safe, healthy, and productive life.

Freedom Project provides programming in the prisons themselves that include free voluntary workshops and classes for inmates. The demand is extraordinary: every class fills past capacity. We carry waiting lists at all four of the prisons were work within. The training and support program inside the prisons encompasses a number of elements.