Trinice Holden becomes Executive Director of Youth Restoration Project
The Board of the Youth Restoration Project (YRP) is delighted to announce the appointment of Trinice Holden as the new Executive Director. She will take over the day-to-day operations and help to expand the company’s reach, with a focus on managing collaborative projects in various communities. Along with YRP’s regular consultants, her work will include teaching, guiding and supporting diverse organizations’ use of the Restorative protocols to improve their culture and conflict management. Her passion for adept handling of conflict, big and small, has found a perfect expression with Restorative Justice Practices.
Trinice began working YRP, as a Restorative Justice Conference Facilitator, rising quickly to staff supervisor under YRP’s National Institute of Justice grant, and then became Implementation Manager. This fall she was recruited into the Institute for Non-profit Practices, with a scholarship from the Nellie Mae Foundation. She is a certified Social-Justice mediator and has completed the High-Performance Coaching Academy. Trinice’s extensive work with international students taught her many surprising lessons about becoming competent at working with very different backgrounds. She has managed two for-profit businesses.
Trinice says, “I feel honored to have the opportunity to work toward making an impact on how we treat one another. One of my favorite African proverbs is: ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ Internationally and over millennia, indigeneous people created and have used these practices.”
Julia Steiny, Founder and out-going Director of YRP, says, “We’re incredibly lucky to have recruited someone as organized, smart, warm and diplomatic as Trinice. I have every faith in her.”
David Kane, President of the Sargent Center, says, “Trinice adds new and different capacities to the on-going affiliation we’ve had with YRP. We’re proud to host the training series she now leads that gathers people from diverse professions and geographic sectors. Working with her is a pleasure.”
Since 2009, the Youth Restoration Project (YRP) has developed and delivered Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) training and implementation to diverse organizations including schools, state agencies, and private businesses. Their grassroots-developed work has issued over 500 certifications to new Practitioners who’ve given glowing reviews to the practical, daily-use skills they learned with YRP. In 2014 YRP and its partners were awarded a National Institute of Justice grant to implement and conduct Restorative Justice conferencing in several RI secondary schools.
Contact Trinice at: trinice@yrpofri.org.
2020 Winter Training
Winter training starts on January 30th with the Tools Overview session. This session can be taken by itself, as an introduction to Restorative Justice Practices, or as the prerequisite to our Basic Tools and Initial Mastery Certificate programs. It covers the philosophy and history of the international movement, contrasting its approach to the retributive mindset of our current justice and disciplinary systems.
Our training is practical and participatory. We use circles in every session to spark bring out the diversity of viewpoints in the group, and show the broad applicability of these techniques. The Overview and hand-outs give you all you need to begin using these tools and concepts every day.
Cost: $150 for the Tools Overview alone. The Basic Tools Certificate requires the Overview plus two more practice / booster sessions; the charge is $350. The Certificate of Initial Mastery requires four sessions in addition to the Overview, for a charge of $450. If you’ve already done some training with us, you can register for additional sessions here.
Sign up for winter training sessions here
The Youth Restoration Project builds relationships and community, one creative interaction at a time.
YRP is a Rhode-Island based training and consulting group working with organizations to help them build interpersonal cultures where all people feel heard – where young and older, bosses and employees collaborate effectively, trust each other and their community, and have confidence they can handle conflict constructively.
YRP got its start working on school culture, shifting disciplinary systems to a restorative, healing model rather than rely on punishment, coercion, and “zero tolerance”. YRP has also worked with organizations as diverse as Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, social service agencies, arts groups and small businesses. Restorative practices are skills and concepts universally applicable to interpersonal relationships at work, home and play. They nurture cooperative rather than adversarial approaches. to accountability, as the key to creating pleasant, safe and respectful environments.
Our Mission
To shift the culture of our families, schools, organizations and communities toward a more peaceful and caring interpersonal environment that ensures all voices are heard. We do this by teaching restorative practices that focus on simple techniques to address conflict and harmful behavior, avoiding endless cycles of anger and retribution.
Our Services
Training in Restorative Justice Practices
- In-depth certificate training in three to five half-day sessions, sponsored in conjunction with The Sargent Center.
- On-site training tailored to the specific needs of your organization, school or community.
Implementation Consulting
- Working with groups on implementing Restorative Practices, from training the leadership team to strategic planning, developing systems and communicating with the larger community.
Restorative Conferencing
- Conferencing is a restorative protocol used internationally to get to the root of problems and collaborate on creative solutions that work for all parties. It can help organizations and communities focus on their core values, handle conflicts and forward initiatives efficiently and inclusively.
- We provide facilitators to conference difficult situations, as well as training those interested in developing these skills in their community.
#thank you’s
“I’m so happy that I’m hearing a common language being used throughout my class. Students know that’s it’s safe to share feelings.”
— Cory Howland, School Social Worker at Waddington Elementary School, East Providence, shown here with Debra Poplillo, 3rd grade teacher and Principal, Karen Goncalo.
From Tammy Koller, Assistant Principal, Smithfield High School: “I wish, I wish, I wish I’d had this training years ago. It would have made such a difference in my teaching practice as well as in my parenting. I used this with my young adult children and got such amazing results, and I know it will totally benefit my students. I can’t change what I’ve done in my past educational practices, but moving forward my perspective is totally different thanks to this amazing program. Thank you Julia and Victor!”
Dr. Jenny Chan-Remka, Deputy Superintendent in Woonsocket, says of the 13 local educators who took the training last winter, “They got so much out of it! They practice the skills and they get results. Their kids are willing to deal with conflicts in a peaceful way. This training is a game-changer.”
