Within months, the San Quentin Kid CAT group lost two longstanding members, Kenny Vernon and Bruce Fowler, but gained two freed Kid CAT alumni. The San Quentin Kid CAT group congratulated Fowler for making it home to his family after serving more than a quarter of a century of incarceration.
The group is preparing to complete their session and start the next cohort for Kid CAT First Step. Their next major event on the calendar is Project Avary’s March for Children, which is planned to take place sometime in mid-September.
Project Avary — an acronym for Alternative Ventures for At-risk Youths — has a long history of involvement with San Quentin. Danny Rifkin, a co-manager of the rock group the Grateful Dead, met on a San Quentin tour the prison’s then-Chaplain Earl Smith, and the two developed collaboration as members of the Grateful Dead visited to record the San Quentin Choir.
Project Avary has since evolved into an extensive year-round non-profit for children of incarcerated parents. Since its start, the organization made long-term 10-year commitments to families with children from age eight to 11.
According to the organization’s publications, Project Avary has helped children heal from the impact of having an incarcerated parent. They have done so by providing these children with a long-term community support-base filled with peer and adult mentors who helped them develop life skills.
The organization has provided children with safe places in which they could connect with other children, older teen leaders, and alumni counselors and mentors. They call this their “Avary Family,” a community with a culture fostered by love and care. Through Project Avary, children learn to develop leadership and essential life skills to help them overcome their struggles.
Project Avary’s literature cited research that revealed children with incarcerated parents as frequently showing “signs of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Such children experience a greater likelihood “to end up in juvenile detention than their peers, struggle in school and experience higher dropout rates. [They] are at higher risk for drug and alcohol addiction and teen parenthood [and] can be distrustful of adults and authority,” said the organization.
The group’s literature also discussed Teen Leadership Mentoring Programs with a summer camp with the goal of turning teenagers with incarcerated parents into teen leaders. “Summer camp and monthly outdoor and wilderness outings build community, leadership, and important social and emotional skills. The Junior Counselor program, beginning at age 15, empowers teen leaders to guide and counsel younger children in the program.”
The literature said Project Avary also engaged in advocacy for teens, by giving “voice to the forgotten needs of the children of incarcerated parents and asserts the implementation of the CIP bill of rights at the local, state, and national level.”
The Project Avary literature quoted an unnamed teen participant as having said, “Avary is a safe place for everyone. I care about everyone on Avary staff and campers because they have always showed me love and that they cared and that they want me to be someone.”
Kid CAT (Creating Awareness Together) is a group of men who committed their crimes in their teens and were sentenced as adults to life terms. The group’s mission is to inspire humanity through education, mentorship, and restorative practices. Kid CAT Speaks wants to hear from all the juvenile lifers, educators, and policymakers concerning juvenile justice issues and rehabilitation. Contact us at San Quentin News, Attn: Kid CAT Speaks, 1 Main Street, San Quentin, CA 94964
