May 23, 2024

Dear members of The Resiliency Collaborative community,

We want to share some news with you today. Before we share it, we do want to say that you – the students, families and community we serve – are our number one priority.

In March of 2024, we learned that some funds were missing from The Resiliency Collaborative’s (TRC) accounts. We took immediate action, including asking an employee to resign, securing our accounts, filing a report and hiring a new professional CPA to review all of our accounts and finances. The police have since shared with us that the former employee, whom we asked to resign, admitted to stealing money from TRC. Court records show she has turned herself in. TRC intends to work closely with law enforcement and the District Attorney’s Office to recover as much of the misappropriated amount as possible.

As you can imagine, this has been incredibly difficult for all of us – and we are doing everything in our power to keep our doors open so we can continue serving our youth and families.

Many experts are supporting us through this time. Our board members, our staff members Jennifer and Alexa, as well as legal experts and counselors are all helping us. Everyone is working hard to make sure TRC continues offering our programs.

Jennifer Castillo, who has been with TRC since 2022, will continue leading our programs, which is absolutely critical. To help her, we’ll be hiring an interim executive director using a trusted search firm right here in Raleigh. That interim executive director will help us stabilize the organization and make future plans.

As a member of our community, we know you want to help. Here are a few ways you can support us at this time:

• If you, or someone you know, would like to make a donation to TRC, you can do so on our website: https://trcnc.org/donate/
• If you are a parent of a student, or a student in our programs, and would like to share about your experience with TRC with potential donors, please let Jennifer know. We may reach back out in the coming weeks to learn more.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Jennifer. We know that together, we can continue offering our youth a safe, welcoming environment in which to learn, grow and build their futures.

Always grateful for your support,
Nikki Boyd & Melanie Hemphill
TRC Board Co-Chairs