Our projects that can be supported by YOU!!!
Inner Rehabilitation Prisons Project (target £4,500)
Inner rehabilitation. The inmates – now Mindful Leaders – have taken this initiative and have RUN with it! They are change agents – creating their own materials to teach other inmates, increasing accessibility and reach within prison and beyond. Their future plans are to create more music videos and create videos of their Mindfulness teachings so they can share this gift to other inmates in different countries, including here in the UK – some UK prisons have already SIGNED UP!! They are growing their enterprises to become sustainable for growth, so that the project will continue in their prison, as well as in other prisons, and enable them to reach their community. To read more about the achievements to date of the Mindful Leaders…
I’d like to donate to this project!
Mindful Welfare Officer, Community (target £5,000)
The prison welfare officers and staff can witness, feel and live the difference that the benefits and life-changing positivity Mindful teachings have had upon the inmates and staff they train, and so they too use it in their own lives!!
Welfare officers are also subject to the challenges a role such as theirs has in the prisons where they work, whether that is the building structure, the cost of initiatives they need to implement or the restraint of time and so on. However, the Mindfulness initiative has created a ‘comradery’, a FAMILY of staff.
The welfare officers are also change agents – with drive! They often work above and beyond their paid hours to ensure the very best for the inmates and their community. They too have used the Workbook as a starting point and have created further workbooks to develop emotions as a whole, as well as travelled to neighbouring prisons to learn from each other. They too have identified areas that would benefit from customised resources, such as shortened Mindfulness programmes for people on remand, or those who are serving short sentences. Your money will ENABLE THIS HAPPEN. It will enable these dedicated officers to learn and extend their knowledge by travelling across the country, to create a ‘pool’ of resources and knowledge to draw upon, maintain standards and uniformity and enable secure foundations to be grown for Kenyan prisons and prisons around the world.
Mindful Welfare Officers, December 2017
Outreach Work (target £2,000)
Within the prisons, the Mindful Leaders have created a shared Mindful Leader identity, a positive collective, an extended family regardless of tribe, religion or background. However, their desire to help people doesn’t end behind bars – they want to reach the youth who are journeying down the ‘wrong’ path and guide them to a more positive way of living. So what happens from here?
The Mindful Leaders do not see the prison walls as a barrier to reach and share Mindfulness teachings with the communities surrounding the prison. They have ideas, plans and a direction in which they believe Mindfulness can impact positively on people, even while they are completing their sentences.
On the inside – Mindful Leaders want to create MORE videos! They want to record their messages through song, drama and art, and share recorded lessons with the youth community online. If you’d like to see some artwork created already, you’ll find some here!
On the outside one Mindful Leader, Erick (aka The Mindful Rapper), who has now been released from prison, is dedicating his life to sharing the Mindfulness message.
He is going to use music and these songs to connect to young people, selling CDs of the music to help fund the project sustainably. He will develop other innovative ways to engage people in his Mindulness Revolution – Mindful Leaders anthem!!
The different institutions have already created songs that share messages in an enjoyable, upbeat, engaging fashion. Two songs have been recorded by Naivasha Maximum Security and they have a catalogue of songs ready to be filmed, when they have the finances. Mindful programmes are being designed to suit different audiences, resources and learning styles.
The world team behind the revolution:
From Exeter:
Emma Jones – Project Manager, University of Exeter
Dr Inma (Dr Inmaculada Adarves-Yorno) – Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Dr Michelle Mahdon, Research Associate, University of Exeter
From Kenya:
the African Prisons Project
the Kenya Prisons Service
The staff and inmates at the multiple prisons who are all working together.
ALL of us aim to change lives, to be change agents and spread the word about how Mindfulness CHANGES lives. We have been working together since 2015 and have published an impact report on the project and its benefits.