Key challenges
Despite strong outcomes, New Freedom faced challenges common to intensive reentry programs: sustaining engagement across long treatment durations, supporting staff with varying levels of experience, and ensuring participants were developing practical, transferable skills.
Many participants had already encountered Interactive Journaling® while incarcerated, creating a risk that new programming would feel repetitive. Additionally, New Freedom wanted a curriculum that could be facilitated consistently across staff roles while still allowing for depth, peer interaction, and measurable outcomes.
The approach
New Freedom partnered closely with The Change Companies to intentionally integrate Interactive Journaling® into its clinical model. Rather than adopting materials off the shelf, The Change Companies' staff spent time onsite—observing groups, learning New Freedom's structure, and tailoring Journal selection to program needs.
Katherine explains, "[The Change Companies team] went to our groups, learned our program, and built Interactive Journaling® around our program needs and the needs of our individuals."
Equally important was staff preparation. While New Freedom had used Journals previously, meaningful alignment and facilitation support came after hands-on collaboration.
"We didn't have the training and support until The Change Companies actually came out to see us and aligned it with our program," Katherine notes. "That made a huge difference."
Today, Interactive Journaling® supports engagement, peer connection, and difficult conversations across core life domains.
"It helps our members stay engaged. It answers some really tough questions and it keeps them in the group, engaged with their peers. It gives them launching points to have articulate discussions about emotions, about employment, about family, and about peer relationships. So we have found it to be very helpful."
— Katherine Nisbet
Outcomes, results, and future growth
Interactive Journaling® is now fully embedded in New Freedom's treatment plans and paired with pre/post outcome measurement using the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Skills Questionnaire (CBTSQ). New Freedom consistently administers the CBTSQ at admission and discharge. Review of 12 months of data shows a consistent pattern of improved behavioral skill acquisition by discharge, with discharge averages reliably exceeding intake averages across the year.
In addition to formal outcomes, New Freedom reports qualitative benefits tied directly to Interactive Journaling®:
- Higher engagement and peer interaction
- Greater participant ability to articulate goals, emotions, and accountability
- A standardized model that supports staff development, including those new to the field
"We have been using the Journals successfully for four years," says Katherine. "From a leadership perspective, I want something that's research-based. I want something that has proven results. I want a good partner who is able to figure out what's going to work for our program. So having The Change Companies learn what we do was really, really valuable for us to continue that partnership and make that continued investment time and time again."
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