The Freedom Writers Institute program has been so successful that schools in all 50 states, as well as the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and several Canadian provinces have sent teachers to attend our training in Long Beach, California. To date, 233 education professionals we call Freedom Writer Teachers have been trained at the Institute.

In 2009, the Freedom Writer Teachers collaborated with the Freedom Writers Foundation and Erin Gruwell and co-authored Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers, which unites the voices of the Freedom Writer Teachers, who share uplifting, devastating, and poignant stories from their classroom. Mirroring an academic year, these dispatches from the front lines of education take us from the anticipation of the first day, through the disillusionment, challenges, and triumphs of the school year. These are teachers who persevere in the face of intolerance, inflexible administrators, and countless other challenges, and yet continue to reach out and teach those who are deemed "unteachable." Watch as Erin Gruwell discusses Teaching Hope.