Imagine an entire school – students, teachers, and administrators – taking time each morning to turn inward together, and listen to a brief mindfulness prompt and world-class music.
The Well's programs combine best practices in arts and wellness and are designed in partnership with those they serve.
We love collaborating with local, national and international community partners and peoples in a variety of arts programming and mindfulness practices.
We are a small yet mighty team, dedicated to making a big difference with what we have. Your support means the world to us.
Schools
In 2021, The Well was approached with the opportunity to partner with Imagine Bella Academy of Excellence, a Cleveland, Ohio, school, to pilot a program designed to meet the growing academic and social-emotional needs of the students they served. My True SELF (Social-Emotional Learning Fun) was born of this collaboration with Imagine Bella. The primary intention of this pilot was to integrate and operationalize culturally sensitive social-emotional learning (SEL) concepts and student progress easily and affordably into the school day.
The classroom, led by Kara Pierson, The Well's Founding Wellspring Fellow, and Ayesha Drake-El, provided explicit social-emotional learning curriculum for students in grades K through six through the mindfulness classroom specials. The mindfulness, movement, and art-based curriculum was supplemented with student workbooks from The Well's award-winning True Body Project and the daily use of Mindful Music Moments, The Well's signature program.
Additionally, through her residency funded by The Cleveland Orchestra, LaToya Kent brought yoga and more elements of mindful movement into the classroom. In that time, she also created short movement videos that included music from The Cleveland Orchestra.
LaToya Kent leading students in tree pose as part of her Mindful Movement residency.
Art making and self-expression while listening to "Fiona's Lullaby," a collaborative commission by Jenn Howd and Ben Sloan.
This pilot program year was funded by Imagine Bella’s Wellness Fund and an Ohio Arts Council Arts Partnership grant. This allowed our educators to be present in the school three days per week. Kara transformed a classroom space at Imagine Bella into "The Oasis Room." In this place, Kara guided students and educators through mindfulness practices to regulate and calm in the midst of busy school days.
Our partnership with Imagine Bella was renewed for a second year. Shallanna Davis joined the team as Lead Mindfulness Educator, and LaToya Kent joined us full-time as Mindful Classroom Assistant. In the second year, the curriculum, now offered five days per week, grew to become a comprehensive, whole-student/whole-school program that included consulting, coaching, and professional development training in addition to the curriculum. All of this was done to support the social-emotional needs of the students and the adults who serve them as we understood that a systemic approach to social-emotional learning is needed to shift the culture and climate of a learning community.
Taking what we learned in the first year of piloting My True SELF at Imagine Bella, we entered our partnership with Kennedy Heights Arts Center in the summer of 2022 as they prepared to pilot Cr8 Club, an afterschool program for grades K through sixth centered on arts education that concurrently enhanced students reading, writing, and social-emotional skills. This program got its start at Woodford Academy in the Cincinnati Public School District in the fall of 2022. It then shifted to John P Parker School, another Cincinnati Public School, in January of 2023, where we served sixty students through enrichment experiences that included dance, visual arts, photography, African drumming, puppeteering, and more.
A mindful pause on the way to a nature hike.
Mindful movement.
Special guests bring special projects.
The third year of utilizing the My True SELF curriculum truly was a year of celebration. What began as a concept backed by brain science and successful integration of the True Body Project over the years, had been transformed into an experientially-based social-emotional learning curriculum that was brought to life through the pilot programs at Imagine Bella Academy of Excellence and Kennedy Height's Cr8 Club.
Our third year at Imagine Bella was nourished by the presence of Rylie Boodjeh as Lead Mindfulness Educator. That year, our focus was to maintain our whole student, whole school reach while making strides to support and include the whole community as we brought social emotional learning opportunities to all. The school year started strong with programming five days a week and only got stronger with the addition of Kahzar Powell, Mindfulness Classroom Assistant, whose presence allowed for additional staff SEL support, additional one-on-one and small-group time with students, and additional classroom push-in support.
Parents and caregivers were given the opportunity to experience the Mindfulness classroom through the Mindful Families Meditation program which benefited the adults and students alike. Additionally, the students were given the opportunities to practice their mindfulness in the community through field trip experiences including one to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Rylie Boodjeh (L) with Kami Lerma, Director of Mind-Body Programming, and Kahzar Powell (R).
Mindful Families Meditation
Our second full year of partnering with KHAC brought a great deal of growth as their afterschool arts-integrative program expanded to include Academy of World Languages (Cincinnati Public Schools) in addition to continued programming at John P Parker. To accommodate the growing demand, additional facilitators were trained to provided explicit SEL learning opportunities to the students. Coaching and consulting services continued as well which supported the programs in creating and moving toward their vision of success for each of the programs.
The SEL curriculum in the My True SELF program, already rich with mindful moments, mindful movement, and expressive and fine arts experiences, was supplemented with visits from The Well's Mindful Poetry Moments at both John P Parker and Academy of World Languages. Some of the students' original poems were published in Mindful Poetry Moments, Fifth Edition 2024.
As a practice of measuring impact, the social-emotional competence of the students at John P Parker were monitored using the DESSA-mini universal screener. Between the initial screen in early 2023 and the final screen in May 2024, the students showed great improvement. Initially, 43% of the students showed a need for additional SEL instruction outside of the universal program plan. That number dropped to 19% in the final screening, which is a remarkable change to be celebrated.
We have learned that patience, practice, and persistence are required to truly shift the climate and culture of a schooltime or out-of-school time program toward one that nourishes the wellness and well-being of each member of the community. We have learned that creating connections in the classroom, in the school, and in the community benefits all. And, we have been recognized for our contributions to the social-emotional learning world community and looked at to share our successful process and practices with others.
We are dedicated to bring more partners into the My True SELF world and look forward to supporting them with the mind-body-based practices that help move us through the challenges of life that are caused by chronic stress and trauma. We're excited to be a part of this collective shift, and will continue to adapt, grow, and change to meet the needs of all we serve.
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Many of our programs and practices started because someone reached out and expressed a need. What can we do to support you?
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Our programs have been nourishing the community since 2005. In 2019, we became the non-profit, A Mindful Moment.
We are a small yet mighty team, dedicated to making a big difference with what we have. Your support means the world to us.
