Meet Fritzi Horstman | Founder, Compassion Prison Project (non-profit organization)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fritzi Horstman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fritzi, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It wasn’t a thought process, it was an overwhelming mandate. After spending eight hours volunteering inside a maximum-security prison with 75 incarcerated men, crying the entire time, I knew I couldn’t just leave them there without bringing them resources, trauma awareness and a path to hope. I wrote in my journal: “I have an obligation to help.” I found a way back into the same prison (Kern Valley State Prison) and three months later I brought a curriculum focusing on kindness, compassion and trauma awareness.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
There are a lot of prison reform organizations in the United States and in the world, and they are doing incredible work. The thing that we are doing at Compassion Prison Project is spreading awareness about the devastating effects of childhood trauma and bringing healing modalities to the men and women living in prison. Most people don’t know what they are traumatized, they think that trauma is for war veterans or people who survive natural disasters or car accidents. Unaddressed trauma is costing our society billions of dollars a year in adverse health outcomes, lack of education, welfare, prison and lifetime productivity. People don’t realize that the adversity they lived with growing up as a child has impacted them and changed the trajectory of their lives. Trauma awareness is the first step to healing and transformation.

All my training as a producer and a filmmaker, and a jewelry designer and a professional baker has prepared me for what has now become my passion, soul purpose and heart path. Every skill from filmmaking, negotiating, questioning systems and procedures, finding better ways to do things and working with people has prepared me for the day I stepped into prison. my life hasn’t been easy until now because I wasn’t following my heart.

I want the world to know that there are humans living in prison. Men and women who have done terrible things in their lives, who have also done wonderful and incredible things in their lives. Let’s take care of the victims’ needs and also help the most traumatized members of our society rebuild their lives and sense of purpose. I don’t believe, as a society, we should throw people away — taking away their hope, their agency, their creativity and their possibility.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hike in Topanga Drive to Malibu
Have seafood at Neptune’s Net

For dinner go to Playa Provisions and make sure to have the clam chowder.

Next day Downtown. For lunch go to Bar Ama or Guerilla Tacos. walk in the new bustling area and have ice cream at Salt and Straw.

Next day Griffith’s Observatory. Then have fried chicken in Korea Town. Then head to Venice Beach for some sights and sounds. Then dinner at Gjelina.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My dear friend Seth Kadish who let me in on something I never knew: that my childhood trauma was effecting my behavior, my relationships, my outlook and my life. He told me to read “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk. That book changed my life. I guess I would also shout out to Bessel van der Kolk as well.

Website: https://compassionprisonproject.org/

Instagram: compassion.prison.project

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/29369647

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrisonKind

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compassionprisonproject/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJQU_LOEoFePYarxhFTuAHg

Other: Step Inside the Circle: https://vimeo.com/398088783

Image Credits
Vivianne Nacif Rodrigo Prieto