After working with youth for over 35 years, including special education, Dee DiGioia founded Mindful Kindful YOUniversity (MK YOU) to offer Mindfulness-based Social-Emotional Learning Enrichment Programs intentionally designed to address the challenges youth, and adults, face in school, and in life, which interfere with learning/working, relationships, and mental well-being.
Let’s explore the possibilities for a mindfulness program in your school so that all students, and staff, can have access to learning and practicing the essential life skills proven to potentiate well-being, happiness, and success throughout all stages of life. With my training and your leadership, we can create an effective, dynamic program that will positively impact your staff, students, parents, and the community ~ now and for future generations.
PROBLEM:
Chronic Stress in Our Schools
STUDENT IMPACT: According to the World Health Organization, stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century and youth today are under more pressure and experiencing higher levels of stress than ever before whether from academic pressures, sensory overload, and more.
- 30-50% of youth in schools are in a chronic state of stress;
- Stress inhibits memory, attention, and the ability to take in learning;
- Direct correlation to learning readiness and academic underperformance;
- Stress impairs emotional and behavioral regulation; mental and physical health (including anxiety and depression)
EDUCATOR IMPACT: A recent study showed 93 percent of elementary school teachers report that they are experiencing a high stress level. Researchers linked resulting data to the behavioral and academic outcomes of their students:
High teacher stress levels were usually associated with
- poorer student results, such as lower grades
- and frequent behavior problems;
- Similar results in a yet-to-be-completed follow-up study with middle school teachers.
*http://neatoday.org/2018/05/11/study-high-teacher-stress-levels/
SOLUTION:
Mindfulness Based Social Emotional Learning
RESEARCH has proliferated on mindfulness in education. It strengthens the important executive functions of the brain which supports social emotional intelligence and academic (or professional) success. Mindfulness is foundational for education because it contributes to optimal conditions for learning and for teaching, providing coping strategies for students and staff. Because the roots of toxic stress lie deep in the nervous system, we need tools that go beyond the conceptual mind to directly target that system.
MINDFULNESS
IMPROVES COGNITIVE OUTCOMES
improved // focus/attention // memory // academic scores
IMPROVES SOCIAL EMOTIONAL SKILLS
emotional regulation // reduced reactivity // reduced behaviors // increase in empathy // greater self-compassion // improved perspective taking & social skills
IMPROVES RESILIENCE & WELL-BEING
reduced stress & anxiety // reduced post-traumatic symptoms // reduced depression // reduced at-risk behaviors
(Source-Mindful Schools)
Mindful Kindful YOUniversity
LINK to School Programs
Mindful Kindful YOUniversity (MK YOU) programs provide a rich experience for students and staff through learning and engaging in practices of mindfulness and movement grounded in science and and backed by research to support mental and physical health and well-being while developing the essential life skills of emotional intelligence, or “Sm’Heart skills” — the essential education for responding more skillfully to life in the 21st Century! Equip your students and staff with the life skills for stress management, resilience, and mental health & well-being.
Student programs ~ grades pre-k through 12
- School programs // After School programs // Referral based programs
Program is adapted from evidence-based curriculums including Mindful Schools; MBSR-T; Yoga Calm; as well as The Zones of Regulation, GoZen for Anxiety Relief, and more, using trauma informed practices. Bullying intervention can also be a facet of this program.
- Staff Professional & Personal Development
- Consulting
About Dee DiGioia, Founder of Mindful Kindful YOUniversity
- Certified Mindfulness Educator; Certified Yoga Calm Youth Instructor; Trauma Informed
- 35+ working with children (special education, preschool director, and more)
- Pioneered a mindfulness program at an inner city school in Sacramento
- Bullying Intervention Specialist, Author and Founder of Caring and Courageous Kids
Go to SCHOOL PROGRAMS for more info.
