Grantee Spotlight: Mindful Life Project
The 2021 George Family Foundation Annual Report will be available soon. We’ll announce its launch on our website — so stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek from the report. This spotlight is one of a handful of short features celebrating the extraordinary work the Foundation’s grantees are accomplishing.
Mindful Life Project empowers underserved children, families, and school staff through meditation and mindfulness training to gain self-awareness, confidence, self-regulation, and resilience. They seek to create a foundation of wellbeing at the individual level that leads to a connected school culture where everyone feels safe, welcomed, and valued.
“Facing emotions can be hard, but it feels really healthy to be with them and let them breathe. Otherwise, they just sit in my chest feeling heavy until they come out at the wrong time in the wrong way.” — Student participant in Mindful Life Project
Mindful Life Project continues to meet the moment and address the increased mental and emotional supports needed in their communities. In just the last year, they have scaled direct service programming from 25 schools to 33 schools and now support 14,000 young people and hundreds of educators throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, through new partnerships in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and other cities, Mindful Life Project is now reaching an additional 10,000 young people beyond the Bay Area.
“The Next Generation Fund has provided critical support during a time when many organizations, including Mindful Life Project, have felt the weight of the pandemic while having the deep desire to continue to show up for our communities.” — JG Larochette, Founder and Director, Mindful Life Project