Along with exploring concepts from confession to restitution in our 14-week program, offenders hear firsthand from victims of crime and come to understand the true impact of crime on victims' lives and communities. This unique process sparks empathy in offenders, which is the first step in facing their own criminal actions with honesty and remorse.
With the help of hundreds of volunteers each year, Bridges To Life has been changing offenders' lives since 1999 and our curriculum has been used in 19 states and 7 countries. In 2025, the Bridges To Life program will be conducted in over 100 prisons, juvenile, and alternative facilities and we anticipate graduating 7,000 participants from the program.
BTL works diligently to maintain the quality of our program while exploring new opportunities for growth and expansion so that we may positively impact more lives and communities.
Bridges To Life (BTL) is a 14-week restorative justice program for incarcerated men and women focused on victim impact and facilitated by volunteers. The mission of BTL is to reduce recidivism among program graduates and help make our communities safer. Over 93,000 offenders have graduated from Bridges To Life since its inception.
BTL promotes racial equity and diversity education through the format in which our program is conducted. When dividing a roster of participants into small groups of 10 participants each, BTL Regional Coordinators sort by race, crime of record, and age to guarantee that each small group includes the greatest diversity possible. Because of this process, interactions between volunteers and inmate participants, as well as inmate participants with one another, offer rich opportunities for equity training over the course of our 14-week program. Furthermore, prison wardens have given us feedback that BTL participants demonstrate better behavior after the program than non-participants, improving the culture and interracial interactions of the prison environment.
Organization name
Bridges To Life (BTL)
Causes
Justice-involved adults or youth
Operating Budget
$1,000,000 - $2,999,999
Counties Served
Dallas, Fannin, Johnson, Tarrant, Wise
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American
BIPOC Leadership
Neither/None
Address
PO Box 201204