|
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK Brian Jacobs had a student last year who struggled in so many areas. He was in the lowest reading and math groups and he couldn’t keep up with his classmates on the soccer field or basketball court. “He stayed on the outside of so many different crowds because of how intimidating it can be to join as the weakest link,” said Jacobs, who teaches at Bellevue Elementary. But every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. this student shined as he sat down in a Mindful Awareness circle offered by the Flourish Foundation.
|
|
Brian Jacobs says the Mindfulness Awareness Program helps his students get better at being good humans.
|
|
|
“He could name his own feelings and recognize them in others,” Jacobs said. “He knew exactly when a kind word could make a difference in someone’s day—even to classmates who didn’t easily return that kindness. He found he could make a difference in this group, and it helped him find the confidence to make headway in others. Mindful Awareness gave this kid a stage where his gifts mattered and where he had agency to change the tone of our whole classroom.” Jacobs shared his story about cultivating emotional intelligence in his school students to those attending Flourish Foundation’s annual summer fundraiser last week. The luncheon, held over a homestyle taco buffet at each table, was part of the organization’s efforts to raise $250,000 for its Youth Programs Future Fund to cover facilitators leading its Mindful Awareness Program in schools throughout the Wood River Valley and Carey. Attendees sat at tables bearing placards reminding them of such practices as generosity and wisdom. And they played Mingle Bingo to become acquainted with parents whose children have participated in the Mindful Awareness Program, as well as Flourish Foundation facilitators and board members.
|
|
The Compassionate Leaders program allows students to go beyond the question “What do you want to do?” inviting them to consider “How do you want to be?” said Ryan Redman, who is standing in front of a mural that Compassionate Leaders painted this summer.
|
|
|
Jacobs said that getting a room full of fifth-graders to reflect on their own feelings and to notice those feelings in other, is no small feat. It’s the facilitators modeling calmness, deep listening and the validation of feelings that makes it work. “They show students that it’s not just okay, but actually cool, to check in with our emotions. They greet each student with genuine warmth…and the students listen not because they have to but because they want to,” he said. The impact lasts beyond the weekly half-hour session. “My students walk across the room to offer a hug when someone displays distress. They pause, breathe and re-center before tackling a frustrating math problem. They know they have the power to change someone’s day, including their own, with a simple word or act of kindness,” Jacobs said.
|
|
Koko Furlong said Flourish Foundation’s Mindful Awareness Program was a steady, grounding presence throughout her adolescence.
|
|
|
Koko Furlong was in the first mindfulness class Flourish Foundation ever conducted, the meditation practices led by Flourish Foundation founder Ryan Redman. “At the time, being a fifth-grader, I didn’t realize how rare it was to be handed an emotional compass so early in life,” she said. “Later, I would come to understand that these practices planted seeds that would guide my future…a set of tools to pause, to notice and to be present.” As a junior at Sage School, a trip with the Compassionate Leaders Program to India gave Furlong the opportunity she needed to step outside the familiar, a space she could explore who she might become as she saw new ways of seeing the world. She later went to Morocco as a peer leader and to South Africa as an alumni leader before returning to the Wood River Valley where she is now a teacher at The Sage School. “I have come to realize that I am not just an individual but a tapestry woven from the threads of every path I’ve crossed, shaped by those I admire and uplifted by the love they’ve offered me,” she told the audience.
|
|
Ryan Redman stands in front of a slide depicting Flourish Foundation’s programs for adults.
|
|
|
Flourish Foundation works with 1,200 youth on a weekly basis showing them how to navigate a very complicated world, Redman said. This summer 90 students participated in Compassionate Leaders program, which takes students to place like Mexico and the Philippines. New this summer was the Discovery Program, a vision quest in which students spent time by themselves in a safe place as they explore their relationship to nature. The Flourish Foundation is also embarking on a Teacher Restoration and Renewal Program. And it also has several programs for adults, including Mindful Awareness and Mindful Childbirth, “We want to support our youth programs to create a kinder world,” Redman said. Reagan Flannigan was one of the Compassionate Leaders who traveled to South Africa this year. There, she helped villagers plant vegetables. She helped clean and paint an abandoned classroom so it can be used again. And she watched villagers bring in water from great distances, thankful that she can turn on the tap at home.
“It was so fun,” she said. “We went to a huge preserve and saw giraffes—they were so massive. We ate kudu burgers made out of antelope. And I gained a new appreciation for the comforts of home and more compassion about how other people live. I saw how they live in poverty and how they are still happy.” THE CAMPAIGN CONTINUES The Flourish Foundation is continuing its $250,000 fundraising campaign to fully fund its evidence-based, social-emotional work with students from kindergarten through 12th grade through Sept. 14. To donate, go to https://secure.qgiv.com/for/flourishfoundation.
|