Saving Icarus

We are raising money to try to keep black and brown youth out of jail and on the trails by weaving life lessons together with bike touring adventures.  Cycling and life both involve journeys and both can teach us lessons along the way.  We just need a little help in seeing the lessons that life reveals to us.  The mission for Saving Icarus is to help at-risk kids from a single parent home avoid the criminal justice system by instilling better decision making skills and mental coping methods through speakers who have overcome adversity and paired with bike touring in more than 100 miles of trails in Western Pennsylvania.

According to the National Center for Fathering, 85 percent of youth in prison come from fatherless homes and 70 percent of gang members come from the same single parent family structure. All of these numbers are abstract, but I experienced them day after day of young black men in jail outfits and shackles in the courthouse and it happens every day in most courthouses.  The Sentencing Project determined that there are 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Prisons determined that 38.2 percent of all Federal inmates are African American and 93.2 percent are male.  The criminal justice system is in middle of great change and in need of a complete renovation.

My goal is to help a young person of color face life’s adversities with tools centered on the love of God, love of others, and a healthy love of self.  The focus is to help kids avoid becoming a part of the following stark data mentioned above.  According to Mentor.org, an at-risk youth who has been mentored are 85 percent more likely to participate in sports and extracurricular activities, 78 percent more likely to volunteer, 55 percent more likely to enroll in college, and 46 percent less likely to use drugs.  

Everyone encounters adversity.  It is not a matter of defeating the adversity, but more importantly how one prepares for it, responds to it, and then finding a way to creatively survive it and then thrive.

Please help us keep kids out of jail and on the trails!  Thank you and God Bless  Jerry Johnson

step 1 acquire bikes, helmets, water bottles, and bike parts

step 2 reserve van for bike trips

step 3 order biking clothing

step 4 begin training bike volunteers

step 5 collaborate with already existing bike nonprofits for volunteer

While working in the criminal system, I learned that all of us are many things from fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives.  We are also a total accumulation of our decisions.  I was fortunate to have been taught decent decision making skills, but some people don't have any and make decisions in the heat of the moment, in desperation, or just following the wrong crowd.  We will focus on those internal mechanisms of decision making and mental coping methods that allows one to successfully navigate our cultural landscape with creativity, dignity, and empathy.

Providing tools for a young person's journey in life that allows them to Survive & Thrive!