OSI-Baltimore grantee Holistic Life Foundation (HLF) continues to generate national attention. In late September the organization and its afterschool program, Holistic Me, was featured in articles on websites like Upworthy, Vibe, and Woman’s Day, to name a few.
Just this week, CBS This Morning ran a piece about the program in Robert W. Coleman Elementary School where each morning, more than 300 students start their day with a “mindful moment,” consisting of meditation and yoga.
The goal of the program, which was founded by brothers Ali and Atman Smith, is to give Baltimore City school students the tools they need to deal with issues they face like growing up in challenged neighborhoods.
According to Ali, “There’s violence going on in the neighborhoods, there’s drug abuse in the neighborhoods, so it’s just, there’s all these things just getting dumped on these kids and they need a way to kind of deal with it.”
Said one student, Sierra, “When I was breathing, all the things that’s been happening, I passed that on — all the problems, I passed that on and worried about… what’s more important.”
Since its inception in 2002, Holistic Me has been implemented in several Baltimore City schools and school programs, including Windsor Hill Elementary School and the Druid Hill YMCA and Robert W. Coleman Elementary.
With OSI support, Holistic Life is creating a manual of its process and programs so that they can be replicated and brought to scale.
