Empowering

Safer Communities

We help people emerge from prison with new communication and relational skills, retooled for successful reentry into society.

Breaking Ground in the Prison System

Realness Project is the first organization to bring the power of Authentic Relating Trainings to over a thousand people living behind bars.

And it’s working: our recidivism rate is hovering at 6%.

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 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.

98%

OF INCARCERATED PEOPLE WILL BE RELEASED

View the stats

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.

 

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.

Learn More

Get inspired by this half-hour interview of Laurie Lazar, Executive Director of Realness Project.

Laurie describes the power that human connection is having on incarcerated people and the ripple effect that it creates in the world.

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