Project Avary
Project Avary helps children heal from the impacts of having a parent in prison. They do this by surrounding youth with a long-term, supportive community of peer and adult mentors and by empowering them with leadership development skills so they can break free from generational cycles of trauma and incarceration.
They began as a Bay Area summer camp in 1999 and have evolved into an extensive year-round leadership program that now serves children from across the country through their leadership programs, including:
They bring children of incarcerated parents together within a community where younger children connect with peers, older teen leaders, and alumni counselors and mentors—many of whom have personal experience with parental incarceration. They call this community the “Avary Family”.