Nine times a year, cohorts of young people from San Jose and San Francisco pile into vans and head out for the fresh air and redwood-dotted forests of nearby Half Moon Bay. These are city kids, bonded by a shared experience of growing up in urban centers. But something much darker that bonds them, too. Each child has been affected by abuse, neglect or some other traumatic experience. Their destination: an animal sanctuary called Wildmind, where they’ll begin the healing process by learning and developing coping skills.
But on this three-acre sanctuary, humans aren’t the teachers. Animals are.
A homeless boy might be empowered by Luna, a one-eyed great horned owl that was hit by a car. Or a girl who’s spent time in the juvenile justice system might learn lessons about trust through the tales of a red fox named Inali, found abandoned after a storm.
It’s all part of the at-risk youth program at Wildmind, which houses more than 50 non-releasable wild animals that were rescued after being abused, injured or abandoned. Founded in 1980, the nonprofit has a singular focus on educating people of all stripes on environmental issues and the benefits of connecting with nature through animals. But for the marginalized youth who walk through its doors, it’s also a place to build social, emotional and life skills rooted in the animals’ stories.
Many of the teens who take part in the program come from the foster care and juvenile justice systems. They’re referred to Wildmind by shelters, youth agencies or their schools. Once a month for nine months, groups of 10 to 15 teens with troubled pasts meet at Wildmind’s sprawling Half Moon Bay facility. They start their day outside with a healing circle, where they’ll reflect on their feelings and soak up the nature around them.
Next come the animals — or as they’re called here, “wild teachers.” Lola, a red-tailed boa, might “share” why she sheds her skin every month, driving home the point that it’s important to shed negative memories in order to grow. Luna, the great horned owl, might “tell” a story about losing her mother but gaining support from others. There’s also Suka, an Arctic fox; George, a tamandua; Penny, a porcupine; Tundra, a snowy owl; and dozens of other animals, all of which have stories to share that mirror the kids’ experiences.
“The animals provide examples of surviving, overcoming obstacles and adapting to their environments, and that’s really what it’s all about for young people in crisis,” said Chris Kelley, the executive director of Wildmind.
Over the course of the program, the teens work on a group project, usually helping with construction on one of the animal’s habitats. The group typically ends their day with a hike or walk around the property.
“They get ideas about how to cope with their daily struggles and come through the other end with hope for the future,” Kelley told NationSwell.
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The story of Wildmind goes back nearly four decades ago when Steve Karlin, an environmental educator, opened a sanctuary that encouraged children to connect with nature. The at-risk youth program, which has helped around 2,500 troubled teens, was added in 2001. All in all, Wildmind has brought science and environmental literacy to more than 8 million students.
Jen Motroni, a wildlife educator, said it’s incredible to watch the kids open up over the months. People who would have never crossed paths create lifelong friendships and learn as much from each others’ challenges as they do from their animal teachers.
“They have this idea of what’s going to happen, and then all of that gets broken down,” she told NationSwell. “Many times they open up to us about the abuses and the trials and tribulations they go through.”
Motroni, who has worked at Wildmind for 18 years and with the at-risk program for three, has heard the kids describe all sorts of family challenges, from parents who have been deported or struggle with addiction to fathers who have abandoned their family.
“I have learned so much from these kids,” she said. “Everybody has their own story and you never know what someone has gone through.”
Kelley stressed the dual nature of the program. “It was developed to not only include the animals and the stories around the animals, but to provide young people a forum for opening up, for trusting people, for sharing their feelings,” he said. “Wildmind creates a safe space for them to do that.”
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Tag: at-risk students
The Legislation That Has the Potential to Reduce Youth Recidivism in California
The California juvenile justice system is caught in a depressing Catch-22.
It’s common knowledge that schools are one of the best ways to keep kids out of trouble. But for the troubled ones that are sent to juvenile hall, they face very difficult odds of reenrolling in class once they’ve served their time. This often means that if these kids aren’t readmitted, they are back on the streets — missing out on an education and possibly turning to a life of crime.
Nationwide, 80 percent of incarcerated juvenile offenders end up behind bars again. For California — the state with the highest rate of incarcerated youth — this has to stop. But now, a new bipartisan-approved bill (currently waiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature) could change this troubling statistic, VoiceWaves reports.
AB 2276, authored by Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra, could ensure “that juvenile justice-involved youth have a successful educational transition when they return to their local schools, and creates a process to help promote best practices for this transition.”
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California’s juvenile court schools have the highest dropout rates in the state. VoiceWaves reporter Michael Lozano explains that “of the roughly 42,000 youth who attend California’s juvenile court schools each year, only 20 percent successfully reenroll within 30 days of their release from the system.”
Why do these kids have so much trouble going back to school?
According to Lozano’s report, when a child is released from the juvenile court system, school records are not immediately transferred from probation officials to the county office of education. This means that schools might force these kids to take redundant classes, or in a much worse case, deny these students from enrolling completely.
What’s troubling is that the majority of the country’s incarcerated youth are locked up for non-violent offenses, such as California high schooler Tanisha Denard, who served time in juvenile hall after racking up repeated truancies because she often couldn’t afford the bus to school, VoiceWaves reports. After being released, school officials did not allow her to reenroll at her former school. Luckily, she found another school to attend — but it wasn’t easy. Denard tells the publication that she only had five days to gather her numerous academic records, find a school that would actually accept her, as well as negotiate with her probation officer for an extension during her search. “A lot of times you get out from juvenile hall, and they look at you like a criminal, [and] they’re not likely to send you to a school where you’re likely to be successful,” she says.
There’s also appears to be a lot of miscommunication between the state’s probation offices and education departments. AB 2276 aims to reform a current law that would require these agencies to work together, expedite a student’s documents, as well as collaborate with local education organizations that help a child successfully reintegrate back into school. The bill would also create a stakeholder group that would study successful reentry programs and report back to the legislature.
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It’s wrong to deny these kids another chance at an education, especially since most of them just want another shot. As Assemblymember Bocanegra says in his bill, “In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice found that more than two-thirds of youth in custody have ambitions of higher education.”
It’s currently unknown how much the bill would cost; the creation of the stakeholder group alone would reportedly require $100,000. The Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, who has urged passage of the bill, found that the cost of a year of incarceration for a youth who does not reengage is $180,000. Additionally, the organization says that “youth who do not successfully transition back into school after leaving the juvenile justice system and drop out cost the state $46 billion a year, including $12 billion in crime costs alone.”
For California’s formerly incarcerated youth, this might just be a very small price to pay.
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Against All Odds, 98 Percent of This School’s Students are Heading to College
University of Pennsylvania. Wesleyan. Howard. These are some of the fine institutions that the 39 graduates from Girard College, a boarding school for at-risk students in Philadelphia, will be attending in the fall.
Accomplishing an amazing feat, nearly 100 percent of the teens that received diplomas from Girard College will attend school next fall. As blogger Brad Aronson (who attended Girard’s high school graduation last month) wrote, “Most of the students are from areas of Philadelphia where it’s assumed that they won’t go to college. They’re from neighborhoods where less than 60 percent of the kids graduate high school and only a small fraction of those continue their education.”
Founded in 1848, Girard College is an independent five-day-a-week boarding school for economically disadvantaged children grades 1-12. All Girard students receive a 100 percent scholarship for tuition, room and board — valued around $40,000 a year. To qualify, students must come from a home without one or both parents and qualify as “low-income.”
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According to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, the school has graduated more than 20,000 orphans and children from financially needy families.
While this graduation rate sounds amazing to most of us (especially considering the circumstances), it turns out that it’s not particularly noteworthy that nearly every graduating senior from the class of 2014 is headed for higher education. The school boasts a college acceptance rate is nearly 100 percent. “In the last 10 years, 89 percent of Girard graduates attended a four-year college; 7 percent attended a two-year institution and 2 percent attended a vocational or technical school,” the educational institution reports on its website. In comparison, the average college-going rate of high school students for the state of Pennsylvania is only 61 percent.
Going to college is already a big achievement, but it’s also a means to break into the middle class. Aronson also described how moved he was after meeting the students’ families: “I met parents who hadn’t graduated high school. They were crying and cheering for their children who had achieved so much more. Children who had broken the cycle in their families and given future generations a new standard to aspire to.”
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It’s Not a Stretch to See That This Yoga Teacher Makes a Difference to At-Risk Teens
Just think back to the stress and anxiety of high school. Many teens need a little guidance to navigate the angst-ridden time, and one California teacher is proving that a little bit of stretching, meditation, and sticky mats can work wonders.
Erin Lila Wilson, the founder and executive director of RISE Yoga for Youth, is bringing a sense of peace and calm to at-risk high schoolers in the Bay Area, Huffington Post reports.
Take Alex Ramirez, a student at San Francisco’s Mission High School who got into fights with her mom and couldn’t focus in school. According to the RISE website, after joining Wilson’s yoga program, her GPA went from 1.6 her freshman year to an impressive 3.5 her sophomore year, and now she’s a 4.0 senior who’s in the process of applying to colleges.
“It helped me find a balance in life,” she said of the program. Alex said yoga has also helped improved her and her mother’s relationship because they practice yoga together.
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Alex’s story may be unique, but here’s why yoga for isn’t just for New Age hippies. Yoga promotes relaxation, mental focus and a healthy way to manage stress. And for teens who might come from rough backgrounds and difficult family situations, the sense of inner-calm that yoga brings might be just the solution. (You might remember our story on how meditation worked miracles for this inner city high school in San Francisco.)
Since its launch in January 2012, RISE Yoga for Youth has expanded to seven other at-risk bay area high schools.
“From the moment I started, I just totally fell in love with teaching teens,” Wilson told Huffington Post. “I realized that it’s such a gift to bring these practices to young people, because young people are so open and so receptive, and they can take these practices and these tools with them for the rest of their lives.”
Mindfulness Isn’t Just a Hot Trend. It’s Improving Low-Income Schools
When kids can’t concentrate on their studies, it’s probably because their attention is focused on everything else going on in their lives. Consider the students at Coronado Elementary School, a low-income, public school in Richmond, Calif. Jean-Gabrielle Larochette, a teacher at the school, had his formerly rowdy class of kids practice the calming method of “Mindfulness,” a trendy meditation-like exercise that preaches “living in the moment,” for 15 minutes every day. The method showed such amazing results that he went on to found the Mindful Life Project, a non-profit that seeks to empower children through mindful living. Larochette told Mindshift that all the schools his organization works with have seen drops in disciplinary action. Other studies have shown that practicing mindfulness may also reduce ADHD behaviors and increase attention in young students.
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“Before we can teach a kid how to academically excel in school, we need to teach him how to have stillness, pay attention, stay on task, regulate, make good choices,” Larochette told the publication. Mindfulness may be a trendy relaxation method for adults, but it looks like it’s helping kids stay on track, too.