Watch this PBS News Hour feature on OSI-Baltimore grantee Holistic Life Foundation (HLF) and their work at Patterson High School.
The organization was developed as a way to give Baltimore City students the tools to reduce stress and develop peaceful conflict resolution skills through programs that teach mindfulness and meditation.
Patterson High School principal, Vance Benton, thinks the program is impacting his students in a positive way. “The feel in here since we have had the mindful moment is calmer. Children are a lot calmer,” he said. He said that, while there are altercations that do happen, “our male students, particularly our black male students, they don’t fight each other in this building.”
Karen E. Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program, said that programs like Holistic Life Foundation’s Mindfulness Moments are incredibly important for high school students, who are traditionally the hardest to reach and the most underserved in terms of positive interventions and student supports. High school, she said, “is exactly the point at which the stakes become highest and one’s entire life trajectory can be determined.”
Read more about Holistic Life here and check out their after school program, Holistic Me, in our Impact Series.
