Thomas Koonce Email & Phone Number

BIO:Thomas Koonce is the Reentry Program Manager at The Center for Teen Empowerment. He is responsible for providing young men (ages 16-30) that are reentering back into the community from incarceration, the mental, emotional, and physical support that they will need to navigate challenges and readjust to societal norms. Thomas also provides access to resources, job skills, training and employment opportunities in order to reduce the likelihood of recidivism.Thomas, who received his bachelor’s degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Boston University while incarcerated, has over thirty years of lived experience from behind prison walls. As a result of this lived experience, Thomas brings a wealth of experience to the reentry field. Thomas is a cofounder of the Restorative Justice Group (Transformational Prison Project) that he helped to create at MCI Norfolk. The RJG initiated the first restorative justice retreat and healing circles in Massachusetts state prisons. Thomas & several other co-founders went on to help create almost a dozen additional (RJ) programs that are now being implemented across the Department of Corrections. Thomas also brings with him 27 years of youth counseling experience, while serving as the chairman of an at-risk youth program called Second Thoughts, Inc. During this time, Thomas has had the privilege of having counseled numerous youths across the state from: DYS, Residential Facilities, Alternative Schools and Community Youth Programs. This unique experience has allowed Thomas (in his reentry role) to be very instrumental in helping youth to heal from their trauma(s) and to help lower the recidivism and crime rate(s) amongst our youngest offenders.Thomas continues to serve our young men confined to the Department of Youth Services. He visits The Metro Youth Center and Judge Connelly Facility each week to talk with the youth who are committed. Thomas also volunteers at state prisons and at the Suffolk County House of Correction, South Bay. For over three decades, Thomas has counseled and mentored thousands of at risk youth in prison and in the community via Restorative Justice Healing Circles, ultimately healing and saving many lives.