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THE SCHOOL MINDFULNESS PROJECT INC

Sustainable Wellbeing For Philadelphia Schools

Philadelphia, PA   |  http://www.theschoolmindfulnessproject.org

Mission

The School Mindfulness Project aspires to improve the physical, emotional and academic wellbeing of Philadelphia's public school communities by providing sustainable mindfulness and mindful movement education and training to students and staff on a school-wide basis.

Notes from the nonprofit

Before we do some visioning together, casting our imaginations into a future where school communities in underserved neighborhoods are bustling with students who are resilient, calm, focused, and physically and emotionally supported, where teachers are equipped with tools to engage and elevate their students and themselves, where whole school communities are supported in fostering a culture of wellbeing, we invite you to pause. Notice the sensation of the chair beneath you. With your eyes open or closed take a deep breath, filling from your belly to your chest. Then exhale slowly. If you’d like, take another breath, inhaling and filling your lungs, exhaling slow enough to feel that you’re breathing out. Now, let’s step together back to the future. If we take a look around, we might see that students that we once taught have joined the SMP as ambassadors, board members, educators, and can be seen cultivating the wellbeing that years earlier changed their own lives.

Ruling year info

2017

Executive Director

Gail Silver

Main address

413 S 3rd St

Philadelphia, PA 19147 USA

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EIN

81-4399519

NTEE code info

Youth Development Programs (O50)

Elementary, Secondary Ed (B20)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Programs and results

What we aim to solve

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Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

LA Academia Antonia Alonso, K-6th School

As one of our two pilot schools, we will implement our five-phase program model at this K-6th school, serving over 600 at-risk students and 34 teachers between January and May of 2019. Four to Six SMP educators and yoga teachers will be on site full time at La Academia during this time period. Upon completion of the training, all students will have a foundation in mindfulness and mindful movement education and all teachers will be equipped with the tools to sustain classroom mindfulness practices and integrate the teachings into the school day. La Academia has elected to continue with weekly yoga classes post-training. Post training, two SMP yoga teachers will return to La Academia in the fall of 2019 to provide ongoing yoga classes to students and to support an in-school suspension room through our redirections program.

Population(s) Served
At-risk youth
Children and youth

Where we work

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    We serve underserved school communities in the Philadelphia School District, delivering our program to classroom teachers, students, the school community at-large. What’s uniquely significant about the reach of our program though, is the nature of its ripple effect. As evidenced by our curriculum and data, students, teachers and school administrators “take the program home,” sharing newly learned skills and practices with parents, children, family and caregivers. When a child learns mindful speech, mindful listening and how to manage their emotions with mindfulness, these skills have the opportunity to reach everyone with whom the child interacts.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    During the 2020-2021 school year some classroom communities exhibited difficulty completing the classroom integration component of SMP's curriculum, specifically the "Take Away" exercises that follow each Mindful Classroom Community Training class provided to their classroom by SMP. SMP gathered this knowledge through meetings with classroom teachers, reports from SMP staff on student journals, and through analysis survey data. We analyzed it together with our CEO, curriculum designer, Program and Research Committee, and our full board. Following our exploration, a thoughtful curriculum change ensued to provide classroom teachers and the classroom community as a whole with greater support and oversight as they adopt newly learned practices as their own.

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

THE SCHOOL MINDFULNESS PROJECT INC
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

THE SCHOOL MINDFULNESS PROJECT INC

Board of directors
as of 09/27/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Ms. Katayun Jaffari

Chair, Corporate Governance and Securities with Cozen O’Connor

Term: 2021 - 2024

Marsha Cohen, Esquire

Hally Bayer

Thrive Fitness

Hugh Regan

Jasoleil Cineus

Andrew Cohn

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 9/27/2022
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 09/27/2022

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.