Graduate Program

How those who have participated in our 2 Day or 4 Month program continue to grow and learn.

RP Graduates are automatically members of the Graduate Program. They receive ongoing support to enable the integration of all that they’ve learned. While still incarcerated, graduates receive regular communications from the Realness Project. Communications include writings, poems, and other reinforcement of the work as well as an invitation to engage in relational “games”. We also conduct bi-weekly Zoom follow-up calls, if the facility allows.

Additionally, we have a hotline to field questions that any graduate might have about re-entry needs. We refer them accordingly to existing organizations.

Upon release, graduates can participate in our growing calendar of events, such as our monthly “RP Community Connection Call” and “RP Connection Lab,” both on Zoom. On these calls, Realness Project grads have the opportunity to connect with course leaders, mentors and other grads, share successes and challenges, and receive ongoing support and resources.

We are currently working on another branch of our Graduate Program. It will give those who are currently behind bars as well as those who have rejoined society, an opportunity to teach and support others using their Realness Project skills. Graduates and RP Volunteers will get to establish new relationships, mentor others and grow their own sense of self through various activities and conversations.

The ART of Being Human Workshop

2 Day Intensive

Our highly experiential flagship workshop provides participants with powerful and lasting communication skills to connect with family, friends, employers, community, and the world in more meaningful, empowering prosocial ways.

Our work’s foundation is AR (Authentic Relating), a robust set of communication practices designed to cultivate trust, understanding, curiosity, cooperation, and empathy. Building on a variety of credentialed humanistic disciplines, AR is one of the most impactful human connection innovations of our time. Through AR, participants move beyond conditioned relational habits and learn to relate from a more revealed, genuine, personal expression while also receiving others in their authentic expression. RP’s courses allow us to be more human with one another in a highly experiential and enjoyable way. Participants will leave enlivened and empowered to employ new skills in their lives immediately.

Communication, Conflict Management, and Relational Leadership Training (CCRLT)

Four Month Program with ongoing support

CCRLT is a four-month training program for incarcerated people, with ongoing support available through the RP Graduate Program.

With dignity in mind, we have designed a comprehensive training program to enable inmates to increase self-awareness, improve their ability to listen, find their voice, and handle anger and conflict with real skill. These important relational components will give them the tools they need to serve themselves, their families, employers, and communities in a prosocial way.

In this dynamic course, offenders learn critical communication skills to build and manage relationships with integrity and confidence. Through hands-on exercises, group discussions, written assignments, and opportunities to step up and lead, graduates of our program are much more prepared for the enormous challenges of reentering society.

Realness Project’s Dynamic Communication Course for DOC Staff

Realness Project offers workshops for DOC staff to effectively build relationships with co-workers, inmates, family, and the outside community while upholding the department’s mission. In addition to advanced communication skills, participants gain valuable coping skills for navigating ongoing pandemic requirements and other daily challenges. The class is dynamic and experiential, so graduates leave prepared to implement new behaviors immediately.

Through the content and delivery, the workshop opens up lines of communication and builds a cohesive team ready to face challenges together, and aligned on how to approach difficulties. Also, oftentimes inmates know the dynamics of a squad and may take advantage of opportunities from disjointed staff. So having a cohesive team can save lives. This supports the CDOC’s mission statement of "building a safer Colorado for today and tomorrow.”

Upon completion of the Realness Project’s Dynamic Communication Course, staff will be better prepared to handle the challenges of their daily interactions with other staff, inmates, and family-- ready to make a real impact reducing recidivism.

RP Fair Chance Hiring

Realness Project helps small to mid-sized organizations integrate formerly incarcerated people into the workforce. Through experiential learning practices, management teams build real cohesion and develop skills to interact with and support their new team members effectively. In addition, your team will learn some of the real challenges they might face when working with people who have been institutionalized.

We work with companies to create custom programs to best fit their individual and collective needs.

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