Empowering
Safer Communities
We help people emerge from prison with new communication and relational skills, retooled for successful reentry into society.
“I am a former gang member. I have always struggled to connect with people on a positive, uplifting level. This course has not only made my dream of being a force for change a real possibility but it has built an even greater drive to go out and form real connections.
This will be a part of my life forever. After 10 years of incarceration I found a way to really be me.”
~ Realness Project Graduate, resident CDOC
The System is Broken
The Correctional system is failing to correct behavior and that means more crime on our streets. More families in distress. More unnecessary heartbreak and financial cost.
2.2 Million
PEOPLE IN PRISON & JAILS
The U.S. is the world leader in incarceration, with 2.2 million people behind bars — a 500% increase over the last 40 years.
83%
ARRESTED AFTER RELEASE
More than 4 out of 5 prisoners are arrested within 9 years of their release — half of those are arrested within the first year.
“This course has a unique way of taking even the most hardened and closed off people and assisting them in the paradigm shift that the CDOC is moving towards. Having witnessed both staff and offenders taking this course, I feel encouraged and inspired that the system can change.”
~ Jacquelynne Witte, 10-Year Veteran Pre-Release | Community Programs Specialist III for the Division of Adult Parole in the CDOC, including Close Custody and Gang units
A Path to Freedom
Every day at Realness Project, we encounter incarcerated people who not only who have the capacity to learn skills that will help them reintegrate into society and become productive, law abiding, tax paying citizens, but also are hungry for this kind of transformation.
Realness Project programs are designed to empower participants to communicate with confidence, handle conflict with grace, and develop healthy, sustainable relationships with their partners, children, parents, bosses, coworkers, and most importantly, themselves.
“
This class has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I mean this from my heart. It has been life changing. I know in my heart that my whole outlook and actions in relationships will not ever be the same, for the better. I know what I’ve learned will be a part of my everyday life.
— Bobby
Breaking Ground
IN THE PRISON SYSTEM
Realness Project is the first to bring the power of authentic relating programs to correctional facilities. Since 2018, we’ve delivered our powerful workshops to hundreds of people living behind bars.
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