Our Mission
It’s no secret that mass incarceration has crippled communities and ripped families apart and that parental incarceration is a traumatic, isolating, and painful experience. At Project Avary, we help children heal from the impacts of having a parent in prison. We 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.
Project Avary has been working with children of incarcerated parents for over two decades and are national leaders in supporting children with incarcerated parents. We 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 our leadership programs, including our Bay Area-based leadership program , national online leadership program, and mentoring programs.
Project Avary believes in the power of community and relationships full of welcome and belonging to both heal and to empower growth. We 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. We call this community the “Avary Family”. Within the Avary Family we provide a culture where youth feel loved and cared for, where they know they deeply matter, and where they are surrounded by a long-term community of adult and peer mentors who see and honor their nobility and their highest potential.
Within this container of deep trust and respect, children of incarcerated parents join together to heal, to grow strong, and to step into bright futures that are free from the painful cycles of incarceration.
