Mindfulness Education to Keep Kids Safe

Community safety

South LA Other (below)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Schools lack culturally responsive wellness infrastructure. Our program fills this gap by embedding mindfulness & art education that promotes resilience, healing, & emotional safety where students need it most. Students are navigating chronic stress due to anti-immigrant policies, gun violence, pandemic grief, & climate disasters. In 2024, NCES data shows the pandemic’s lingering effects continue to have a negative impact on socioemotional wellbeing including increased apathy & defiant behavior. At Jackson, where many students & staff lost their homes in the 2025 Eaton Fire, post-fire regression continues to impact learning & well-being. These compounding traumas reduce students’ ability to focus, connect, & feel safe at school. The need for trauma-informed wellness programs is urgent—especially in communities where children face daily fears of family separation, loss, or displacement. Our program directly addresses these threats to safety by cultivating care, empathy & connection.

Our 8 month school-based program strengthens emotional & community safety by addressing the compounding traumas mentioned in Question 6. 
Before the start of the program, we meet with each school site to determine the most urgent needs of the school community. For example, at ACES in South LA where most of the students come from immigrant families, the Principal asked for an increased attention to coping with traumas stemming from anti-immigrant policies. 
We adapt our year-long curricula with their requests & implement themed lessons, such as  “Color My Mood” & “Art of Resilience”. A PY teacher is matched with each classroom & meets monthly for 30 minutes to build consistency and trust.
Each session includes education (ex: a presentation on emotions), movement (ex: stretching), songs, mindfulness (ex: meditation) & art. Through the variety of activities, students build emotional intelligence, deepen connections & develop tools for self-regulation, communication, and collective care. At the end of each session, children are assigned a mindfulness practice to do at home to support their continued socioemotional development. 
The school teachers also implement the practices throughout the month & students of all ages can be found doing breathing activities and singing their favorite mindfulness songs throughout the school, such as “Breathe it In” by Beautiful Chorus. The students use the methods learned to navigate real life stress, improve focus, or make friends.

Angelenos care about Community Safety & our school-based program is an example of how investing in a culturally connected mindfulness program impacts emotional & community safety. When students feel safe, communities are safer too. 
Since launching at ACES in 2021, we’ve seen ripple effects of safety & resilience. Children feel seen & supported, not just as students, but as whole people navigating real challenges. 
Classrooms become more peaceful & supportive. Students better regulate emotions, resolve conflict & improve focus. They share these techniques with their family members, which builds stronger & safer communities. Compound this by 5 years & we now have ACES grads who are in high school & have these tools in their back pocket.
Annually, ACES has invested in our program w/ federal funding, yet this year their funds have been cut. With this grant we will sustain the ACES program & expand to Jackson, an Eaton Fire impacted school, & support an additional 680 students & staff.