What is the name of your organization?
FreeWorld
What is the name of your solution?
FreeWorld
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
FreeWorld is scaling our solution to place returning citizens into living-wage careers.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Austin, TX
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Approximately 77 million Americans, one in three adults, carry a criminal record, creating persistent, compounding barriers to economic mobility. Each year, up to 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons. Of those, more than two-thirds will be rearrested within three years, and more than 70% within five. Incarceration reduces a person's future earnings by up to 40%, a penalty that outlasts their sentence by decades. Justice-impacted individuals face layered, mutually reinforcing obstacles including employer background check discrimination that screens them out before an interview, skills and credential gaps, and the absence of vital documents. These structural barriers are not incidental, they are the mechanism by which poverty and incarceration reproduce each other across generations. The problem is acute, national, and disproportionate. Black and Latino Americans are incarcerated at 5x and 2x the rate of white Americans respectively, meaning the economic exclusion perpetuated by a criminal record falls hardest on communities already facing the steepest systemic disadvantages.
What is your solution?
FreeWorld is a full-stack, technology-enabled workforce development solution that guides justice-impacted adults through every step of obtaining a Commercial Driver's License (CDL-A) and entering careers in the trucking industry. Our Free Agents access support through our FreeWorld Mobile app. From a single interface, participants can apply to the program, access virtual CDL-A preparation curriculum, receive wraparound support (vital documents, stipends, transportation), and get matched to local trucking schools where FreeWorld covers tuition. After graduation, FreeWorld connects participants to employer partners offering living-wage salaries.
FreeWorld has an incredible ability to scale. FreeWorld has expanded to 10 states in under five years and has supported 25,000+ Free Agents to receive support services. Since 2020, 3,619 people have earned their CDL-A, and 2,791 have been placed into jobs. FreeWorld maintains an 87% training completion rate, an 81% employment rate, and a 92% 12-month job retention rate nationwide.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
FreeWorld serves adults ages 21-63 who have a criminal record. The majority of FreeWorld's participants are Black and Latino, coming from communities disproportionately impacted by poverty and incarceration. The average FreeWorld participant returns home with $15,000 in debt and a 392 credit score. FreeWorld's technology-enabled training and placement model provides a pathway out. FreeWorld’s outcomes represent lasting economic mobility for individuals, their families, and the communities they return to. The national average first-year income of FreeWorld participants is $68,000, more than four times the median annual earnings for justice-impacted individuals, generating over $102M in collective earnings in 2025 alone. Notably, FreeWorld participants recidivate at less than 5%, compared to the 68% national average.
