Inside Prisons

Nonviolent Communication and conflict transformation

Mindfulness and healing practices

Peer mentorship and leadership development

Racial equity and anti-oppression learning

In the Community

Reentry support and resource navigation

Rapid rehousing and housing stabilization

Pathways toward homeownership and financial empowerment

Youth leadership, creative expression, and civic engagement

Community workshops, advocacy, and restorative spaces

Accountability

We take responsibility for our impact, regardless of our intention. We practice transparency with ourselves, our partners, and the community.

Connection

We build authentic relationships with ourselves and others while remaining mindful of the ways oppression, trauma, and disconnection shape our experiences.

Empathy

We believe in the essential humanity and value of every person. Empathy is not passive. It is a healing force that can transform relationships, communities, and systems.

Equity

We work toward a community where quality of life, access to resources, safety, belonging, and the ability to contribute are not determined by race, class, gender, sexual orientation, faith, incarceration history, or any other identity.

Freedom Project was established in Washington State in 2001, beginning with Nonviolent Communication (NVC)programming inside the Monroe Correctional Complex. Its early work focused on providing incarcerated individuals with practical skills in communication, mindfulness, conflict resolution, accountability, empathy, and relationship building. 

Over the years, Freedom Project expanded its presence throughout Washington’s correctional system. Its prison-based programs created spaces for healing, personal growth, and community building while helping participants prepare for successful transitions back to their families and communities. By 2019, Freedom Project reported that it had worked with nearly 7,000 incarcerated individuals over approximately 18 years. Research published in 2014 also found substantially lower recidivism among Freedom Project-trained participants compared with the broader Washington prison population examined in the study. 

As the organization evolved, its work expanded beyond prison programming to address the challenges people face before, during, and after reentry. Freedom Project developed community-based support focused on housing, employment, education, resource navigation, healing, family and community connection, and other barriers affecting people impacted by incarceration. The organization increasingly centered the leadership and lived experience of formerly incarcerated people and communities most affected by mass incarceration. 

A significant period of organizational growth occurred after 2018. Freedom Project reported that in 2018 it operated with approximately five staff members and 50 volunteers supporting NVC workshops inside prisons. By 2023, it had grown to a team of 27 staff members, supported by hundreds of community members working both inside and outside correctional facilities. During this period, its focus broadened from primarily teaching Nonviolent Communication to applying those principles toward racial equity, healing justice, community support, and systemic change. 

Today, Freedom Project WA is a community-centered organization serving people and families impacted by incarceration and systemic inequities throughout Washington State. Its work includes prison-based programming, reentry support, housing stability, community resources, youth and family initiatives, workshops, and advocacy. At the center of its mission remains the goal of shifting communities from punishment toward restoration, from oppression toward equity, and from disconnection toward empathy and belonging.