Get to Know the Creators

Heal, Restore, and Transform Lives & Relationships

Our intimate, face-to-face communication games have proven to fill an extensive void in our fast-paced, increasingly disconnected technological world.

Trance4mation Nation’s board games and card decks make indispensable dialogue, and transformative, life-changing, deeply compassionate conversations convenient and highly enjoyable, and have impacted over one hundred thousand lives to date.

When you have no way to process your experiences, or to share your struggles and your dreams, possibly little access to resources–when you won’t or can’t go to a therapist or counselor, where can you go?

Trance4mation Nation has met and continues to meet this challenge by developing and launching restorative communication games which provide for a human infrastructure of compassion and healing. Hundreds of millions of people have no one to share their struggles, lives, experiences, or even their dreams with, and do not have access to, or resources for therapy, or due to stigma will not go to a counselor or therapist.

No matter how alone you may feel, these tools provide a space in which we discover we share many of the same struggles, and where we can give and receive guidance, support, compassion and healing...And have a great time!

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Leslie R. Robinson is a psychotherapist and the inventor of the games the Keep It Real game and Keep It Real Diverse (Diversity) game. Spawned from her many years of work with adolescents, young adults, adults, and families, Keep It Real was created as a forum to provide profound dialogue, trust, connection and transformation.

It is an interactive communication board game that provides a safe space for people to explore and share their beliefs, feelings, memories, reflections, struggles and dreams out loud. Presently, the Keep It Real Diverse game is being utilized to build bridges and connections across differences by approximately 1,000 colleges and universities, 200 Boys & Girls Clubs and youth programs, numerous organizations.

Leslie has been a Program Director for at-risk youth in the South Bronx. For six years, she created, implemented and supervised long-term intensive arts and after-school programs in inner-city schools for at-risk youth, and for two years pioneered a poetry project at Rikers Island Correctional Facilities for Men and Women. She was a Consultant for the foster care system for 20 years, supervised residences for homeless young adults, worked with the schizophrenic population in homeless shelters, and worked in an emergency shelter for runaway youth. A former adjunct professor in literature and writing at the College of New Rochelle, Leslie graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Masters Degree in Creative Writing.

In 2009, Leslie founded Trance4mation Games, a company formed as the overall company for her Keep It Real brand, Warrior Spirit Mission Homefront and RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-Entry games. Leslie’s Warrior Spirit Mission Homefront is an evidence-based reintegration communication game designed for soldiers and other military personnel and their families and friends. It has been heralded by hundreds of veterans across all branches of the military as a valuable and indispensable forum that allows for open communication and reintegration, specifically when soldiers return home after tours of duty away from their families.

RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-Entry Game was created in 2013, to help formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into their families and communities, as well as to process their incarceration experience. This game is presently being utilized in re-entry programs in and outside of prisons, mentoring programs, work release programs, by cognitive-behavioral therapists, in prison literacy programs, life skills programs, by families, in prison visits, by church and faith-based organizations, in classrooms, by Social Workers, and many more. In partnership with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, prisoner-led Recharge Reentry programs launched in 12 prisons throughout Ohio.

For two years, Leslie was a Department of Defense Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Speaker, presenting to Service Members and their families nationwide. She was honored for her work by the President of Nasdaq, by ringing the closing bell at Nasdaq Marketsite on December 30, 2014. Leslie has developed and facilitated workshops on leadership development, diversity and inclusion, professional development, veteran reintegration and service learning on college campuses nationwide. Her areas of expertise are: Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership Development, Team Building, Veteran Reintegration, Empowerment, Professional Development, Resiliency and Mental Health. She hosted a national Diversity Webinar attended by over 300 colleges in November 2013, and a Keep It Real Webinar attended by over 200 participants in July 2014. She has appeared on Al Jazeera America, on the Security Brief on Reelz T.V (and on numerous national radio broadcasts.

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Leslie R. Robinson

Creator & Founder

Throughout my life, I have always been highly sensitive to people’s emotional pain. My mother had significant mental health issues, and I helplessly watched her cycle in and out of severe mood swings. This left me without anyone to share my inner life with, or to have the opportunity to develop my own identity. Through years of my own significant emotional struggles, and decades of work in underserved and marginalized communities, as a social worker, therapist, facilitator, workshop leader and presenter, I have dedicated my life to helping people to explore their feelings, experiences, realities, and lives, and to provide ways for them to experience their humanity and value through authentic connection with others.

I have worked tirelessly to develop and launch my communication games – designed to provide safe spaces for people to explore the darkness and the light within, from our demons to our dreams, with those who want to understand. Until now, there have been no “tools” or processes to accomplish this. I wish I could have had a tool to connect on much deeper levels with people in my life who I have lost to suicide. People playing these games often state that they know the people they have played for one hour with better than they know most of the people in their lives who they have known for years. These first and only of their kind “games” are meeting an urgent void and need.

Terrance coffie

National Campaign Director of the Recharge Reentry Support Group Movement / Founder of Educate, Don't Incarcerate / Director of the I am A Credible Messenger National Campaign ? Co-founder of the United Freedom Coalition. 

Terrance is the Founder of Educate Don’t Incarcerate, a grassroots organization that raises awareness surrounding criminal and juvenile justice reform, and assists formerly incarcerated men with mentorship in pursuing higher educational opportunities. He is also the Director of the I Am A Credible Messenger National Campaign, as well as Co- founder of the United Freedom Coalition.

Terrance has committed himself to creating social and political change within the criminal justice system. In this capacity, Terrance has partnered with Leslie Robinson, the creator of the Recharge Reentry Restorative Communication game. Utilizing the evidence-informed Recharge Reentry game, Terrance and Leslie are building a nationwide grassroots mobilization effort to provide greatly needed healing, resilience and community to those impacted by the criminal justice system. Terrance is building a Credible Messenger (formerly incarcerated individuals) “Army” who will provide workshops within prisons, halfway houses, programs, in communities, and in families, both online, and in person nationwide.

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Terrance is the Founder of Educate Don’t Incarcerate, a grassroots organization that raises awareness surrounding criminal and juvenile justice reform, and assists formerly incarcerated men with mentorship in pursuing higher educational opportunities. He is also the Director of the I Am A Credible Messenger National Campaign, as well as Co- founder of the United Freedom Coalition.

Terrance has committed himself to creating social and political change within the criminal justice system. In this capacity, Terrance has partnered with Leslie Robinson, the creator of the Recharge Reentry Restorative Communication game. Utilizing the evidence-informed Recharge Reentry game, Terrance and Leslie are building a nationwide grassroots mobilization effort to provide greatly needed healing, resilience and community to those impacted by the criminal justice system. Terrance is building a Credible Messenger (formerly incarcerated individuals) “Army” who will provide workshops within prisons, halfway houses, programs, in communities, and in families, both online, and in person nationwide.

After a ten year career at The Doe Fund, where Terrance served on the executive team as The PR Coordinator RWA-America, and later as the Community Affairs Liaison, Terrance joined the faculty at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work as an Adjunct Professor, where he teaches Forensic Justice in Problem Solving Courts.

Terrance has gained national recognition for his commitment to criminal justice reform. After spending over 19 years of his life going through the revolving door of incarceration and recidivism, it was in 2009 when he entered The Doe Fund, a transitional reentry program that assists the formerly incarcerated with changing their lives based in New York City, that he not only broke the cycle of incarceration, but as he shares “found his purpose!” As a formerly incarcerated person, Terrance brings a very insightful, distinctive and unique perspective surrounding these issues. Terrance believes that “those who are closer to the problem, are also those who are closest to the solution” in creating a more fair and equitable system of justice.

Furthermore, Terrance is a 2017 graduate of New York University’s Silver School of Social-Work, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the field of social-work, with a focus in criminal justice reform. As an advocate, activist and educator,

During his tenure at NYU, Mr. Coffie interned at the prestigious McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. He was named the 2017 NASW-NYC Alex Rosen Student of The Year, as well as the 2017 Excellence in Leadership’s Award Recipient. In 2016, Terrance was recognized as NYU’s President’s Service Award Recipient & Excellence in Leadership Award Recipient for his development of the College Pathways Program, which assists young men of color and the formerly incarcerated in obtaining educational opportunities, and in 2017 he made his debut as a contributing author in Race, Education and Reintegrating the Formerly Incarcerated Citizen (Lexington Books), that highlights the value of education as a transformative tool in the lives of those impacted by the criminal justice system.

Terrance has appeared on numerous venues such as: Yahoo News with Katie Couric, Holland’s TMZ -Justice Interview, NY1 News - In Focus with Cheryl Wills discussing relevant topics in relations to criminal justice reform in America. He has been published in USA Today regarding Reentry, Voting Rights for the formerly incarcerated, as well as his views on the passage of the First Step Act. Through his efforts he also gained the support of famed activist Michelle Alexander, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, he is currently producing educational promotionals that focuses on juvenile justice in America and features Ms. Alexander.

Terrance’s organization, Educate Don’t Incarcerate has utilized their YouTube channel youtube.com/educatedontincarcerate to spread their message. On the channel they host two shows: ‘It’s Coffie Time!’ and ‘Espresso with Ori Spado and Professor Coffie’, where The Real Talk On Criminal Justice Reform is discussed, and Credible Messengers from across the nation are interviewed through this work he seeks to create political, legislative and social change within the criminal justice system. He believes that those closest to the problem, are also those closest to the solution.

To learn more about how to get involved, please contact Terrance at 646-657-5668.

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John Molina

Community Engagement & Development Director

Juan or John Molina, MPA, HPAM Is an Afro-Latino who was directly impacted by the societal and systemic pressures which feed the criminal legal system. John’s extensive work experience is buttressed by a formal education. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Services Administration (BS, HSA) at Lehman College, and went onto NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service where he earned a Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) with a specialization in policy and management (HPAM). John has developed curriculum for peer-mentor training for the John Jay Institute for Justice and Opportunity. He has extensive experience in budgeting, managing grants, community stakeholder engagement, management of programs and program assessment.

John is also adept at leveraging political and social capital to secure discretionary funding grants and has authored many winning grant proposals. For over a decade, John’s tightly held beliefs in redemption and access to education have kept him tethered to the reentry community. In addition, in the social justice arena, John’s executive level expertise includes creating strategic 5-year plans for growth, organizational and program evaluation, SWOT analysis’, facilitating board meetings, and conceptualizing organizational strategies to build multiple streams of income. John is a founding member of the Social Justice Network (SJN), and an active member of ALPFA, the Association of Latino Professionals for America.

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Our intimate, face-to-face communication games have proven to fill an extensive void in our fast-paced, increasingly disconnected technological world.

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