North Richmond Outdoor Exploration for Children
Annual Report
Jump to annual report details (2023-2025)598
5
62
Description
Conduct the Project Avary Outdoor Exploration for North Richmond Children with Incarcerated Parents near Ball Park. This program will include approximately 36 activity days in the community for approximately 700 participants and approximately 42 trips to natural areas for approximately 1,300 participants during 45 months of programming.
Activities in the community will include Birding and Nature Walk; Local Watershed Exploration; and Preparing for Summer Camp and Family Camp all at Ball Park.
Trips to natural areas outside of the community will include Summer Camp at Point Reyes National Seashore Clem Miller Education Center; Family Camp at Point Reyes National Seashore Clem Miller Education Center; Epic Youth Adventure Days at Stinson Beach State Park; Family Adventure Days at American River and Leadership Retreats at Point Reyes National Seashore Clem Miller Education Center.
Image Gallery
Community Home Base Location
1925 Fred Jackson Way Richmond, CA 94801
Project Map
Program Goals
Service Learning/Career Pathway/Leadership Opportunities
Thirty residents will participate in the Junior Counselor training program for youth ages 16-18. Junior Counselors (JCs), serve as counselors in training during summer camp and family camp, apprenticing alongside adult counselors, serving the younger children during summer camp and family camp. Project Avary provides outdoor therapeutic programming for children for children with incarcerated parents. Parental incarceration is one of the 10 Adverse Children Experiences. JC’s are trained in the Project Avary model of therapeutic outdoor programming, which focuses on relationship building, fostering trust through fun outdoor adventures, restorative responses to behavioral issues, and social-emotional fire circle curriculum. At age 18, after they have completed two years of summer camp, JC’s receive a certificate of completion and they are eligible to apply for a senior adult counselor position with Project Avary.
Partnerships
Point Reyes National Seashore Association - Provides environmental education activities for summer camp, family camp, and leadership retreats. The Association will be renting out the Clem Milled Ed Center, which will be used as the camp site for Summer Camp, Family Camp, and Leadership Retreats.
MeWater Foundation – will provides ocean-based environmental education and surfing instruction.
Blue Water Kayaking – will provide sea kayaking on Tomales Bay in Point Reyes.
Giant Steps – will provide therapeutic horseback riding for summer camp
Trips for Kids – will provide bike riding for youth and adults for summer camp and family camp.
Mentoring
Project Avary's Junior Counselor training program empowers youth with training and real-world apprenticeship opportunities to support the development of future outdoor leaders who are equipped to provide therapeutic outdoor recreation. 30 youth will be selected for this mentoring opportunity that will continue after the grant performance period for at least 2 years beyond the grant.
Mentoring activities: At age 16, the JCs are invited to work summer camp as counselors in training. When a youth is age 18, they graduate from the program and can then serve as adult associate counselors. Associate counselors are ages 18-24, and work as a co-counselor to an adult counselor who is age 25 plus. As young adults, the Associate Counselors continue to receive mentorship and training. Project Avary commits to building leadership from within and to empower program alumni to become the next generation of Avary counselors.
Annual Report Details
Programs may span from one year to multi-year, not to exceed four years. The specific length of the program is contained in the description above.
| Category | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Youth Served | 385 | 213 | 598 |
| Days for Activities in the Community | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Nature Area Trips | 35 | 27 | 62 |
Inspirational Quotes or Testimonials
2024
"I used to be really angry and I'd get mad and yell, now I don't get mad like that anymore"
"I can't wait to come back again and again and to be a counselor so I can give back to the new kids who come - because I know it's scary but it'll change - it's so fun here."
"I cried at my first fire circle because I never really talked about my dad like that before, now I only cry a little bit and I like to talk about it now"
List of Educational Goals Achieved
2023
Nature walks, swimming, surfing, art instruction, building awareness of parks, recreation benefits, water conservation and solutions to prevent pollution, climate change and potential solutions, outdoor safety, camping skills, cooking and learning sound nutrition habits and food storage safety, wilderness survival skills, teamwork and leadership building activities in nature, and therapeutic recreation in nature to heal from the effects of PTSD, trauma and other physical and emotional conditions.
2024
Impact on Climate Change - workshops on how climate change is effecting our planet. Water & Earth Processes - Watershed activities Availability of Natural Resources - Nature Walks with educational components Modification's of Earth's systems by Human Activity - The importance of leave no trace and leaving a location better than how we found it Cycling of Water in Earth's systems - Watershed activities Pollution prevention - Teaching of using non chemical processes at our camp site that flushes water into the grounds Camping Skills - trip preparation Cooking & Learning sound nutrition habits & food storage - at retreat in the kitchen and with farm to table activities Teamwork & Leadership building activities in nature - during all nature trips Therapeutic recreation in Nature - during all nature trips
List of Formed Partnerships
2023
Point Reyes National Seashore Association and their Clem Miller Camp has been the greatest partnership for this award- being able to provide the youths we serve a location in nature that they are familiar with and look forward to coming back to especially when for a lot of them it is their first times leaving their communities and experiencing the state park and all the nature it has to offer. Here we are able to teach camping skills and build awareness of parks and recreation. Me Water has been a great partnership in surfing and allowing the youths to be comfortable in water - bringing the youths out to the California Oceans and teaching of the importance of water conservation and solutions to prevent pollution and climate change
2024
N/A
Lessons
2023
- Hands on experience and investigation
- Teaching in a fun and engaging way.
- Encouragement to explore, reflect and connect with nature.
- Having staff youths can identify with and feel safe.
2024
Ensuring youths have fun, using simple and relatable examples, having energetic teachers and allowing youth to participate and jump into activities have all been successful methods for us. Unforeseen challenges this year was we had a very major transition in our organization causing us to have to delay some community days - we do have a plan in place to continue this on in the coming year and will reach out goal.
