“Thursday afternoons at Parkrose High, Victor Trillo Jr. sets out a spread and welcomes two dozen students as they file in for pizza or wings or subs. Over a meal they talk and write and draw – and they strengthen solidarity during meetings hosted by the nonprofit Pathfinder Network.
‘It’s an arts-based club to support youth who have been impacted by incarceration, deportation or detention,’ Trillo told The Skanner. ‘It’s just mind-boggling what we’ve been able to do here. Going on two years we have consistent attendance, we sit in the space together, we either have a writing prompt where we write about our experiences, or an art prompt where we draw our experiences, and we’ll have guest speakers come in and talk about their stories of resilience and how they overcame the barriers or the challenges of having a loved one incarcerated or deported or detained.'”
POPS Club for Teens with Incarcerated Parents Offers a Healing Community
(The San Fernando Valley Sun)
“When Jennifer Birstein began her freshman year at El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills, she carried the secret burden of having a mother who had been in and out of prison since Birstein was 3 years old.
The weight of that emotional trauma often manifested itself in “lashing out,” she admitted.
‘I wouldn’t listen to [my teachers] – I would yell and talk back to them,’ recalled Birstein, who is now 23. ‘I really didn’t see any reason to respect any of my teachers, because nobody in my life had really taught me that respect and discipline. No shade to my father – he was honestly doing the best he could at the time – [but] I feel I really needed a mother’s guidance.’“
Students with parents in prison give advice to their younger selves
(The Jefferson Exchange – Jefferson Public Radio)
