Fairfield, CA – Students and teachers at Cordelia Hills Elementary School spent Tuesday, February 2, growing and sharpening their mindfulness skills with the help of a local non-profit organization.

Staff from the Richmond, California-based Mindful Life Project led student assemblies, made visits to over 20 classrooms, and met with teaching staff to share their unique brand of school-based mindfulness. Using a combination of hip-hop music and interactive activities, presenters introduced nearly 700 students to an array of strategies to support mental and emotional well-being.

“Our school has been working for the last few years to initiate mindfulness as one strategy for supporting the health of our students,” Cordelia Hills Principal Steve Trotter said. “Being able to bring Mindful Life Project to campus helps to take that work to a new level during a period when our community needs it more than ever.”

The day started with outdoor grade level assemblies for all students followed by individual classroom visits to teach seven specific mindfulness strategies, including understanding the impact of stress on the brain. The day ended with an after school staff presentation. Presenters emphasized that the process of improving the well-being of students starts with supporting staff in understanding and practicing mindfulness.

Mindful Life Project recently partnered with the Solano County Office of Education to bring their services to each school district in the county. Project founder and Director J.G. Larochette remarked, “We are excited about the opportunity to bring high quality mindfulness programming to Solano County. This pandemic has been so hard on students and educators and we know our organization can help in real tangible ways.”

Listening to students talk about the day, Trotter and Larochette marveled at the importance of the work. One 3rd grader remarked, “This is exactly what I needed. All of this mindfulness and hip hop was awesome.”

Mindful Life Project serves thousands of students in schools across the Bay Area and Northern California. For more information on the work of Mindful Life Project, visit http://mindfullifeproject.org/.