Mindfulness for Title 1 Schools

Mindful Life Project (MLP) supports schools through highly impactful mindfulness based social emotional learning programs. Our comprehensive approach supports the mental and emotional well-being of students, educators, and families in making transformations from the inside out to create a culture where mental and emotional well-being is the foundation of everyone’s experience. Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris, Surgeon General of California, says adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), is one of the biggest health crises facing young people to date. ACEs occur through chronic stress and/or trauma and affect youth at higher levels each year. This has only escalated since the pandemic. As Dr. Burke-Harris says, "We are in the greatest crisis of stress, isolation, adversity, and trauma that most of us have known across multiple generations. But now we have the right tools. And we can actually prevent that generational harm.” Dr. Burke-Harris provides a playbook to address ACEs and outlines mindfulness as one of the keys to supporting young people experiencing trauma. MLP works with communities to address primary and secondary trauma to support whole schools to create safe and healing spaces rather than trauma inducing places.

In the 2020-21 school year MLP is serving over 11,000 students across 25 Title 1 elementary and middle schools. In the 2021-22 school year we are on track to be in 29 schools within the Bay Area. In the 2022-23 school year, we are projecting to grow to 35 schools, including schools outside of the Bay Area. In addition to students served, the metrics we look for to understand our impacts are as follows: Reduce referral, detention and suspension rates at each of our partner schools: - 35% decrease at first year schools - 50% decrease at second year schools - 60% decrease at third year schools - Maintain or steady decreases in 4+ year schools Increase quality teaching time on average by 20 minutes. Improvements in student ability to participate in the classroom and schoolwide culture, specifically their ability to: - Relate to one another, as exemplified by group work. - Pay attention, as exemplified by individual performance on assessments. - Settle down, as exemplified by the amount of quality teaching time in a given day. - Control their impulses, as exemplified by the number of students sent to the office. - Be self-aware, as exemplified by teacher observations of, or assignments that focus on student self-reflection.

Vision

Mindfulness for Healthier Communities

We envision an education system where all underserved schools receive access to high quality mental and emotional health services. MLP wants to be a conduit to this by scaling our highly impactful mindfulness programming. This will help spark a movement across the country making schools mindful and compassionate safe places, rather than spaces that often perpetuate cycles of stress and trauma.

Mindful Life Project

Mindfulness for Title 1 Schools

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

JG Larochette

Jackie Soohoo