Our History

Project Avary was founded in 1999 at San Quentin Prison in response to the prison chaplain, Earl Smith, watching children line up outside the gates as they waited to visit their incarcerated parents. Smith was alarmed by the intergenerational dynamics of trauma and incarceration that he was witnessing, as fathers, and then sons, would end up inside the walls of San Quentin together. He knew he had to do something…

Then, Chaplain Smith met Danny Rifkin, manager of the Grateful Dead, when members of the band began regular visits to the prison to work with and record the San Quentin Choir. Smith shared the plights of the children with Rifkin, and the two came together to begin Project Avary, as they envisioned, funded and bootstrapped with their friends and community. Project Avary’s first summer camp for children with incarcerated parents began shortly after.

Our very first program offering was summer camp. Camp is in our DNA, as is the understanding that fun & games and giving children opportunities just to be kids is an important part of creating community, trust, and healing. In addition to summer camp, we later added year-round weekend adventure outings so we could stay connected throughout the year, thus strengthening the bonds of relationship that bring healing.

Project Avary was one of the first nonprofit organizations in the nation dedicated to improving life outcomes among children with parents in prison. From the very beginning, the intention was to provide children with a long-term community of support and belonging, where youth could connect with other peers and adult counselors who know what it is like to have an incarcerated parent. We begin working with children, as young as age 8, and we make a long-term commitment, serving them until age 18. It’s because of this long-term commitment and the close relationships that are built over time that youth refer to us as the “Avary Family”. 

And the story continues…

For years, people and organizations from outside the Bay Area have called upon us to extend the Avary Family into their communities. Then, in 2020 as Covid-19 rocked the world, we were forced to move all of our programming online via Zoom.  Remarkably, we discovered that the Avary Family works incredibly well online, where our counselors, junior counselors, and new children can all come together for connection, fun, and support. 

Through this discovery, a new program, Project Avary Online, was born. In late 2020, we opened up enrollment to youth from anywhere in the US who are looking for the support and nurturing that Avary has to offer.

The Avary Family is growing, our mission and capacity is expanding, and our journey of empowering leaders and change-makers to heal the generational cycles of incarceration continues in a powerful way.