Mindfulness and Meditation Training Programs in Brooklyn High Schools
The Mindfulness and Meditation Training program is a community-based collaboration with the Brooklyn College Community Partnership’s Project Peace. Together we work with at-risk high school students from underserved communities throughout Brooklyn. The program teaches students – many of whom are struggling with shame, stress, anger and violence – to follow the thoughts and emotions that lead them away from their essentially equanimous minds. By seeing their thinking clearly and learning meditational tools to tolerate emotional pain, the students gain freedom to make healthier choices in their lives.
As a key component of this training, BZC has developed a peer-to-peer transmission model whereby high school students will be trained to lead mindfulness groups for their peers. BZC leads two-hour, weekly, on-site workshops at two high schools and the Brooklyn College Arts Lab. A select group of peer-to-peer trainers study mindfulness techniques more deeply with staff at BZC and eventually co-lead on-site groups so that they will be able to lead discussion groups on their own at their respective high schools. Our goal is to support a culture of mindfulness throughout the student community in which these young people pass on mindful life practices to their peers.
Schools Served:
Bushwick Erasmus (video above) Brooklyn College Arts Lab High School Program
About our education partner, the Brooklyn College Community Partnership:
Since 1994, BCCP has created networks of educational innovation that connect under-served youth, local middle and high schools, high-need communities, and Brooklyn College. BCCP currently has programs at M.S. 246, I.S. 291, Bushwick Campus High Schools, Erasmus Campus High Schools, Paul Robeson High School, New Utrecht High School, and Thomas Jefferson High School Campus. To learn more about BCCP, click here.
Awake Youth in Brooklyn Public Schools