Executive Summary

Project Avary is a pioneering leadership and mentoring program designed to meet the unique needs of children of incarcerated parents. The organization’s mission is to empower youth to heal and break free from the generational cycles of incarceration and trauma. Project Avary intervenes early in the lives of youth, between the ages of 8-10, and makes a long-term 10-year commitment serving them until age 18. Avary youth are surrounded with a community of adult and peer mentors. Over 90% of counselors and mentors have a shared lived-experience with parental incarceration, providing an unparalleled community of belonging, where the grief, shame, and isolation of having a parent behind bars is healed.  Youth begin their Avary journey in the Children’s Explorer Program (ages 8-13), where they participate in a continuum of year-round activities including a summer leadership camp, family camp, monthly leadership retreats, outdoor adventure days, and after-school support groups.  At age 14, youth enter the Teen Leadership Program (ages 14-18) where they are trained as Junior Counselors, they are empowered with leadership skills and responsibilities, and they become agents of healing and transformation for the younger children in the program. Annual evaluations show that over 92% of youth develop protective factors and skills that are critical for overcoming the impacts of parental incarceration. 94% of program alumni have remained uninvolved with the criminal justice system.

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