NEW HOPE FOR TROUBLED TEENS16 March 2004
MBA Project Press Release 4.16.03:
The Mind Body Awareness Project is a dynamic non-profit organization offering stress reduction and anger management classes to teens in San Francisco and Alameda County juvenile halls. Through various mind/body awareness-based exercises, including yoga and meditation, the program helps incarcerated youth find calm in the midst of stress, and peace in the midst of violence.
These programs provide desperately needed techniques. “It attacks the core of what’s really going on in my head,” says 18-year old George, a program graduate. “It [meditation and yoga] gives me time to just center myself in a place that allows me to express how I feel, and come to grips with what causes me to think the way I do”.
Co-founder Noah Levine, who learned to meditate twelve years ago while incarcerated in the Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall, says, “By cultivating basic meditation and yoga practices in a supportive environment, these young people are able to find a much-needed affirmation of self-worth and confidence as well as real tools that help them avoid acting on violent impulses. This not only helps rehabilitate them but also has a positive impact on the community.”
Over the past several years, we have seen a steady flow of young people into the juvenile justice system. While ideally, society would focus on rehabilitating individuals prone to antisocial or harmful behaviors, incarcerated youths often find themselves living in a hostile environment with little chance of being positively directed out of the system.
Two years ago, after Vietnamese monk and leading Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh had provided seed funding for the project, Noah Levine had his first meeting with Ron Johnson, Assistant Director of Alameda County Juvenile Hall.
Mr. Johnson felt the program had great potential to change lives and agreed to give it a chance. Since then, the MBA Project has expanded their program to four classes at the Alameda County facility and two classes in The Youth Guidance Center in San Francisco.
“The teens seem to really enjoy the experience and always appear more relaxed after the classes,” says co-founder and teacher Isaiah Seret. “I’ve even had kids come up to me after class and tell me they felt like they were free”.
To learn more about The Mind Body Awareness Project’s cutting edge work in the rehabilitation movement, contact them via their website at www.mbaproject.org.
(ENDS)
