My office is in the building where my three children went to preschool. Last week I spent a long day working and finally left the office at 7:30 in the evening. As I was leaving the building, I saw there was a meet and greet and welcome for new preschool parents. Standing outside in the courtyard was one of the teachers who taught all three of my children from age two until they went to kindergarten. Around her were about 50 young, new parents. They looked excited, worried, and nervous all at the same time. As I was walking toward the exit, I waved to the teacher who was my daughters’ teacher. She leaned over to a group of moms and said, “I had all three of her girls. She was pregnant when she brought the first one in.” I added, “I was breast-feeding when I brought the second one in.” I couldn’t resist. I walked over, pulled out my phone, and showed recent photos of my absolutely stunning three grown girls. Oh, the seasons! They come. They go. Time stops for no one.
To be honest when I look at the photos I am not sure how I got from A-to-Z. The young moms look at my phone in disbelief. I remember when I was their age and my girls were little, I would look at people who had teenagers and think “My kids will never grow up. I will never live to see my children become teenagers.” Honestly? I thought I would be buried with a diaper bag. So many years I schlepped that big bag around containing diapers, extra clothes, snacks, art supplies and what not! Now I walk into stores holding my phone that has a little pocket in back where I keep my credit card and my license. It has been over a decade since I had to carry a diaper bag.
“Ms.,” he said. “I feel like the transition home is worse than jail. I’m supposed to be free but yet I’m still locked up. They check my bag when I come in. They frisk me down. This is not what I thought it would be.”
“Well,” I said to him “What is the place called?” He tells me the name of the place. “No, no, no,” I say to him. “What did you just call it? A transition home?”
“Yeah.,” he answers.
I said, “It is a transition home. You are in transition. This is not going to be forever!”
“You’re damn right, Girl,” he says to me. “Ain’t nothing forever. Everything got a timestamp on it!”
Ten years ago, Zev Yaroslavsky, then LA County Supervisor, funded a program in a lock up facility in Malibu. Every Thursday I would drive up the coast to the detention camp, me and my bag of puppets and theater supplies to serve a group of young men. That is where The Advot Project was born.
Ten years later I have trained ten facilitators to implement our Listen-Act-Change curriculum that began a decade ago as Relationships 101. We are in six lock up facilities, serving youth in more than ten different groups. We are in community centers, after school programs and high schools. It is hard. It is demanding. It is amazing. It is exhilarating and wonderful. Like being unable to picture my children’s development, I couldn’t imagine The Advot Project’s growth. Every time I stepped into one of the detention facilities, my life changed a little. I changed. I have had the great privilege of seeing youth turn their life around, change their destiny, and become.
On October 30th, we will be celebrating a decade of impact at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City in a presentation called, “Step into the Light.”
For 10 years we have been giving youth tools to step out of the shadows and into the light. I hope you will join us for an evening filled with the joy of hearing, seeing, and experiencing our magnificent youth: Listen! Act! Change! Join the ripple.
With deep appreciation for your support and partnership,
Naomi Ackerman
Founder / Executive Director
