Changemaker Profile: Melissa Centeno

Melissa Centeno is a Brooklyn-based facilitator, youth worker, and healing justice practitioner. Most recently, she served as the NYC Restorative Justice Manager for S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, working alongside systems-involved girls and nonbinary youth of color to transform their experiences and create space for healing. She is an experienced and trained circle-keeper who is committed to healing individuals and communities alike through relationship-building, education, and care rooted in a Black queer feminist framework.
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Melissa is an alum of the Youth Justice Leadership Institute and organized with the NYC Chapter of Black Youth Project 100 as a founding MembershipCo-Chair. When not holding space with and for Black girls, she spends her time reading, working toward her MSW, or on the hunt for her next mango.