The Freedom to Choose Project

The name of the organization and the signature workshop, "Freedom to Choose," was inspired by the work of Viktor Frankl and his well-known book "Man’s Search for Meaning." Fundamental to his teaching was the lesson, hard-won as a survivor of the concentration camps, that every person always has the freedom to choose their response to the events of their life. This lesson serves as a cornerstone of what The Freedom to Choose Project (FTC) teaches in prison. In Frankl’s words:

"Everything can be taken from a person but the last of the human freedoms, the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one’s own way."

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom."

FTC has been providing programs that reduce violence and recidivism in California prisons since 2004. To date, FTC has served more than 3,000 prisoners through a corps of volunteers who have donated over 74,600 hours.