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TGIJP’s Melenie Eleneke Re-Entry Program was launched in 2015 with the purpose of providing equitable employment to formerly incarcerated Black trans women. The Melenie Eleneke Re-Entry Program was created by and for our TGI family coming out of jails and prisons in order to provide immediate support, training, and paid fellowships. 

TGIJP’s CEO Janetta Johnson discussing the importance of having programs to support our TGI folks coming out of prisons

The program educates, strengthens, and empowers our community to re-imagine and develop their lives after incarceration through resources, supporting access to jobs, housing, healthcare, and community. Participants go through a tailored three-phase process that allows them to stabilize, develop skills, and create goals while receiving the support they need.

By 2019 the program expanded to include socio-economic opportunities for our TGI family.


Members connect with TGI Justice Project through many avenues and means. Sometimes we are able to stop the harms impacting our community before formal criminalization, policing, or incarceration, however we frequently hear from our community once they are already system involved.

This visual of our re-entry work demonstrates that TGIJP builds programs from the point of contact to intervene in the immediate harms and crises of our community while working to collectivize and politicize in the process.