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Path of Freedom is a project organized in conjunction with our sister organization, Prison Dharma Network (PDN). Path of Freedom is a program we have developed for incarcerated youth and youth at risk based on our Integral Peacemaker Certificate Training program offered to the public. We are currently delivering the program in Colorado prisons and jails and in schools for at-risk-youth. Kate Crisp, Peacemaker Institute program director and PDN's director, has written a workbook published by Prison Dharma Press entitled "Path of Freedom" which is the curriculum for the 12 week class sessions. She is currently in the process of writing a companion facilitators manual for the course.
 Path of Freedom participants learn mindfulness-awareness meditation, body-mind synchronization, nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, and leadership skills, all grounded in the experience and context of mindfulness-awareness meditation and contemplative spirituality. The program is presented in a nonsectarian manner and is open to participants of any faith and/or those who do not identify with a particular faith tradition. The participants develop greater self-awareness, improved impulse control, greater social awareness and relationship, communication and leadership skills that will give them a new vision for their lives and how they could contribute to their communities. The class is taught by experienced and certified meditation instructors, who have also been trained in our Peacemaker Certification program and are skill in facilitating groups learning nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, and wisdom based forms of leadership.
Path of Freedom Facilitator Training
It has become readily apparent to us, that the recruitment and training of qualified Path of Freedom program facilitator’s is a critical component to expanding this program and a top priority. The core of this training is having Path of Freedom facilitators-in-training, who are well established in their meditation practice and ideally already trained in giving meditation instruction, complete the Integral Peacemaker Training Certification Program offered through the Colorado Peacemaker Institute, on which the Path to Freedom program is based and which includes the trainings offered over the course of one year – Transforming Self, Transforming Relationship, Transforming Groups, Transforming Systems, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and The EVENT.
Additional Projects using the "Path of Freedom" curriculum
 Since the publication of "Path of Freedom" in Jan 2007, PDN has recieved numerous requests for copies of the book and curriculum from various programs serving youth at risk and incarcerated populations. We forsee the book and facilitators manual will be widely distributed throughout 2007-08 and beyond.
To date workbooks have been distributed to:
- an organization serving youth at risk in La Paz, Boliva
- an organization serving incarcerated youth on a Lakota reservation in Wyoming
- a school in Colorado serving female at risk youth
- Pathways program in Massachusetts
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