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Our mission is to create personal and systemic change to turn violence and suffering into opportunities for learning and healing. ------------------------------------- GRIP provides one of the most effective and transformative restorative justice programs in California state prisons, with a long track record of success and ambitions to expand. The GRIP program is currently in 7 state prisons and works to rehabilitate incarcerated people with violent crimes who are serving life sentences and will be paroled into our communities someday. After a year-long deep dive into themselves, students learn to stop their violence and do no harm, cultivate mindfulness and develop emotional intelligence, and truly understand the impact they've had on their victims, their families and communities. We understand that "hurt people hurt people," and at GRIP, "healed people heal people." Transformation doesn't stop at the prison gates, it ripples out to families, neighborhoods, and communities. In fact, former warden, Rosemary Ndoh, said, "GRIP can flip the whole prison yard, completely. You see these guys and you see the peace and serenity they carry with them, and you say to yourself, 'I want what that guy has.'" GRIP is a movement reshaping lives, institutions, and communities. The GRIP program has graduated over 1,765 students since 2011; 869 have been released from prison, and our recidivism rate is 1.18%. In 2024 we reached a significant milestone: 1). GRIP's first program at a women's prison graduated in 2025. We provided a rare safe space for deep emotional work. Many expressed that GRIP was unlike any other program they had participated in. 2). 50% of our program facilitators who teach the program to their brothers and sisters still inside the walls, are formerly incarcerated people. GRIP empowers its members to approach their healing, "for us, by us, about us." We seek to turn what has been “the best kept secret in town” into a program that is recognized and understood by our target audiences, especially in light of Gov. Newsom's announcement: https://mailchi.mp/insight-out/goodstart-8119367?e=e30573e833 There is so much more to learn about GRIP. Please check out our website and trailer: https://grip-traininginstitute.org

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