“Teaching a Person How to Fish and Feeding Them for Life”

Sherry “Dusty” Harris was a single mother raising three daughters in a subsidized housing complex in the Western Addition of the Bay Area. What she realized back then is that the children in her community lacked an understanding of and access to learning the basic skills that young adults need to be ready to step into the world of adulthood. So, Harris stepped in. She taught her own daughters and the neighborhood children about life, etiquette, manners and making good decisions.

Harris and her daughter, Attica Bowden, then sat around their cramped kitchen table and created a more formal, culturally relevant curriculum that would help youth develop self-advocacy, leadership, and life skills –  skills that were missing from most schools’ everyday academic curriculum. Harris passed away in 2018 but her passion lives on in her daughter who opened her nonprofit, Dustys’ Fishing Well, named for her beloved mother. The loss of her mother “became the wind behind my sails to launch the nonprofit,” says Bowden.

The program at Dustys’ Fishing Well is built around the following themes: health/wellness, leadership, community awareness, and non-traditional careers. Within these themes, at-risk teenagers are taught about self-care, economic literacy (how to earn money, budget money, and invest money), nutrition and healthy cooking, etiquette and manners, social justice, and so much more.

Bowden focuses on real life skill sets and making sure her students can be safe, well-equipped, and successful as they navigate the adult world. Dustys’  students are even taught how to navigate police stops, as Black men are disproportionately stopped and killed by police.

Workforce development has also been a focus of Dustys’ Fishing Well since 2020. Bowden, a retired Chief (Assistant Fire Marshal) for the San Francisco Fire Department and longtime emergency medical technician (EMT), offers a certification program through her nonprofit for young adults.

“To become an EMT, you have to complete a 160-hour course. That’s what we offer,” says Bowden. “You receive your certificate of completion after successfully completing the course, and then you have to take the state test, and then you register with a county to begin an EMT career.”

Dustys’  program, City EMT, comes with a stipend, and it offers preparation assistance with the state exam, supportive services, and job placement.

More than 120 students have completed Dustys’  EMT program and one out of five of their students is now working for the San Francisco Fire Department, according to Bowden. She says the opportunity puts them on a path to earning six-figure salaries and in line for upward mobility opportunities, a huge swing for young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Getting into these positions changes the trajectory, not just of their lives, but of their kids’ lives,” Bowden says. “Their grandkids will benefit from the fact that they came to our program.”

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Character is destiny.” Dustys’ Fishing Well is taking this to heart and no one would be more proud of Bowden and her students than Dusty herself.