“Inner Strength picked my spirits up during a time where I didn’t know how desperately I was lacking and helped me in ways I now know were necessary to my life as a school employee.”
The Inner Strength Approach
Inner Strength focuses on the goodness, wholeness, and creative potential of each student.
Research shows that when we become aware of our strengths, capacities, and care for others, we feel happier and more fulfilled, we act with more kindness, and we find access to greater resilience in times of difficulty. The Inner Strength approach focuses on uplifting the positive qualities of our students. Through the curriculum and the support, students gain experiential access to their own inner reservoirs of perseverance, courage, optimism, creative passion, and sense of purpose.
Working in some of the most under-resourced schools in Philadelphia, a city that, in 2021, had the highest poverty rate of all major US cities, Inner Strength instructors are trained to recognize and appropriately tend to the impact of trauma that most of our students carry. Intergenerational poverty, gun violence, systemic racism, mass incarceration impacting family structures and stability, food and housing insecurity, addictions, and other health issues directly impact the majority of our students, affecting their ability to learn and depressing their optimism about their own future.
Inner Strength fills a specific need for these students. We give them tools they can use on their own, wherever they are. Learning strategies and perspectives that work in real life, teens gain confidence that they can be steady in the face of anxiety, understand the confusing factors that influence their experience (including the 300 million year development of the brain), and that they can choose positive thoughts over negative self-talk. These skills can make all the difference between pursuing their dreams and giving up faith in themselves.
The three keys Inner Strength teaches teens are strategies that unlock calm, curiosity, and care.
CALM
- Calm is taught through a variety of methods, including mindfulness-based practices, somatic-based stress reduction, and emotional intelligence training. Students learn specific brain hacks and strategies so when they are anxious, angry, or agitated, they can dial back the emotionality and reset themselves. Students are thrilled, reporting, “I learned it’s ok to take a breath and let myself come back to myself. Now I don’t get so mad.”
- Calm is also developed as students gain emotional intelligence, learning to identify their thoughts and feelings and make better choices over what they pay attention to and respond to.
CURIOSITY
- Curiosity is taught by helping students see their experience in light of millions of years of evolutionary development as well as hundreds of years of technological, communications, and cultural shifts. They see how the brain evolved in ways to help them bond with their peers, take risks and learn new skills, and also go through periods of hyper-emotionality. There’s hardly a class where students don’t erupt saying, “Now it all makes sense! No wonder I reacted the way I did!”
- Curiosity is also fostered by looking at the characteristics of post-modern complexity, and how we have more individual agency and choice but generally less social support, when compared to life some 1,000 years ago before the rise of large urban centers, the products created in the industrial age, and the exposure provided by technology.
CARE
- Care is developed through Love and Kindness practices, which help students feel gratitude and appreciation for their own qualities and for the mentorship they receive from others. Teens regularly report, “I didn’t realize I was so mean to myself in my thoughts! Now I have a kinder voice inside.”
- Care is also fostered by teaching students how to notice positivity, even in small moments as a way to support themselves. They practice extending acts of kindness and encouragement, a homework assignment that reveals to them there is more care in their own actions and in what they receive than they may have previously noticed.
When students learn how to better cope with challenges in their lives and when they are encouraged to love learning, they develop conviction in their purpose in Life. This transforms the classroom from frustration, alienation, and boredom, to a living laboratory where teens explore their own experience and find deeper meaning. The joy that arises as they learn how to care for their own mental and emotional well being gives them confidence and the increased ability to stay focused on long term goals even in the face of challenge.
Positive Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Social-Emotional Learning, Mindfulness-Based Practices and other skills can effectively be embedded within the school day. This brings the whole child to the learning environment, leading to a youth’s sense of integration and wholeness rather than alienation and fragmentation. This integrated and inclusive well-being approach gives rise to personal and academic success.
In this time of increased mental health issues among youth, seeing students gain measurable increases in self-compassion, self-regulation, and optimism is a powerful demonstration of what is possible and how we can raise healthy teens who become strong, caring, and capable adults.
"My experience was something new and interesting. It allowed me to step away from my stress and recognize other perspectives. I became more aware of the present and learned more about myself."
– Morgan, 11th Grade
"Mindfulness is the fundamental human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re performing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily comprehensible to us when we practice on a daily basis. Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. And there’s growing research revealing that when you discipline your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodeling the physical structure of your brain."
– John, 11th Grade
"Being in Inner Strength helped me learn that instead of doing things on impulse, I could take a step back, take a deep breath and really analyze what I'm doing."
– Nicholas, 10th Grade
An Evidence-Based Curriculum & Whole School Supports
The Inner Strength curriculum is a CASEL-recommended social emotional learning program that weaves mindfulness-based practices, contextual thinking tools, with positive psychology and emotional intelligence approaches to provide students with a robust approach to self-knowledge and well-being. The curriculum and delivery methodology have been enhanced over the years based on results from a Syracuse University research study, demonstrating the impact of the full 12-lesson program. Every year, students have shown statistically significant improvement across a variety of metrics, which correlate to emotional and mental wellness as well as academic success.
As a trauma-sensitive organization, we know that our work begins exactly where our schools are at. To support students best, we need to support the whole school system and adapt programs to best fit the individual school climate.
In addition to our signature 12-lesson program, we provide digital resources for teachers to use with students, retreats and assemblies to help students team build and have fun, in-school Chill Spots with supervised activities and supports for students who need a moment, and other programs. Inner Strength also provides school administrators and teachers with Stress Management Professional Development sessions, as well as Mindfulness Teacher Training for those classroom teachers who want to learn to bring Inner Strength tools into their own classrooms.
Program Elements
1) We believe the possibilities are endless when students are curious, compassionate, and self-aware.
In the 12-lesson Inner Strength Teen Program, students learn:
- 7 evidence-based mindfulness exercises and when to use them.
- How the science behind adolescent brain development helps them make better, safer decisions.
- How thoughts, emotions, actions, and intentions influence each other and how to promote positive patterns and responsibility.
- Ways to lay the building blocks of healthy friendships and constructive communication.
- Skills to identify and overcome psychological roadblocks.
- How to build their own toolbox that boosts self-confidence, creativity, achievement, and happiness.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders
Our program strengthens students’ sense of agency so they feel informed and empowered to be the culture-changers of tomorrow. By integrating Developmental Thinking and Systems Perspectives, the Inner Strength curriculum teaches youth about the context of their present day experience from a historical, cultural, and neurobiological lens. When students understand the vast forces that shape their experience, they are equipped to make choices that will support them going forward.
"Meditating helped me relax, release my stress, and open my mind to be able to find a solution for my troubles."
– Zion, 9th Grade
"If it were up to me, I would have the meditation class every day. It is just so peaceful, and helps you find a better place in life."
– Diamond, 9th Grade
"I loved using my imagination. I feel as though I am more positive. I know myself more."
– Aaliyah, 9th Grade
Addressing the Challenges Schools Face
Public schools have been facing challenges for decades. The last few years have further shown that change and supports are needed. Not tomorrow . . . right now.
What are these issues?
How can a mindfulness and contextual thinking program help?
The method of funding American public school system has created concentrations of under-resourced schools. So many schools are in need of technology, building repairs for clean drinking water and safe schools, sufficient staff to keep classroom size manageable, and more. Under these conditions, mental and emotional resources–though essential for student success–generally remain available only to students with sufficient private means.
Inner Strength provides access to wellness skills generally only available in affluent communities. These tools, once learned, are life-long supports. They can be used by students anytime, anywhere. In addition, Inner Strength VIBE, our entirely free teen mindfulness mobile app puts resources right in the palm of a student’s hand.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left enduring marks on young people, especially on those who were already experiencing instability in essential areas of food, housing, basic financial resources, and family health supports. A year of virtual school exacerbated loneliness, depression, anxiety, addiction, gang influence, and other serious social health issues.
During the pandemic, Inner Strength doubled the number of classes we taught each week, supporting students and teachers. We launched our free mental wellness app Inner Strength VIBE, and developed new programming to meet students where they were at. These innovations in curriculum have opened up new creative avenues including more individualized supports and self-reflection activities for those students experiencing social anxiety.
Since 2019, Philadelphia has seen a 47% rise in gun violence. In 2021, nearly 1 out of every 5 shootings harmed a young person between the ages of 13 and 19. Many schools have been directly impacted. Students and staff remain shaken by fear, grief, and anger even as life and classwork go on.
Sadly, Inner Strength has assisted schools following the loss of a student. We provide programs, assemblies, and drop in activities to support classmates and teachers as they process their grief, loss, numbness, and shock. Schools have valued the sensitivity of our instructors to hold a caring space and allow individuals to find what they need.
In a 2022 poll of nearly 3 million educators, 90% of participants responded that feeling burned out is a serious problem. Burnout is no longer a sign of weakness or immaturity on the job, it is an indicator of a mental, emotional, and physical condition which must be taken seriously and responded to before it leads to long-term erosion of health.
Inner Strength has served 2,686 educators with Stress Management supports and training sessions. Teachers learn how to defuse triggers and how to embed small actions of stress reduction into their regular routine. In these sessions, teachers regularly laugh, enjoy time with their colleagues, and describe the relief of time to be themselves. With the high rate of teachers leaving the profession, schools need to tend to teacher wellness for staff retention, reduced absenteeism, and a more positive and productive work culture.
Supporting Teachers, Principals, Schools
Strong educators are the heart of thriving classrooms. Investing in teachers supports students.
In Inner Strength’s Stress Management Workshops, teachers learn:
- Evidence-based stress reduction mindfulness based techniques.
- Tools to de-escalate high stress in the moment.
- Conscious movement to unwind the body and reset.
- Context-setting perspectives to de-mystify and de-personalize charged issues.
- Perspective-shifting approaches that remove invisible beliefs and barriers to self-care.
- Easy to implement self care habits.
- Simple approaches to create calm and focus in the classroom.
"Amy showed genuine interest in working to help us practice mindfulness and build strategies for self-care. I liked that we took time to talk about things that make us happy. So often we focus on what is bothering us. It was much more useful than most of the professional development we receive about classroom strategies. It was also so nice to talk with other teachers about what practices work for them.”
Math Teacher
Upper Moreland High School
“Inner Strength picked my spirits up during a time where I didn’t know how desperately I was lacking and helped me in ways I now know were necessary to my life as a school employee.”
School Counselor
Lankenau High School
School Counselor
Lankenau High School
“Amy showed genuine interest in working to help us practice mindfulness and build strategies for self-care. I liked that we took time to talk about things that make us happy. So often we focus on what is bothering us. It was much more useful than most of the professional development we receive about classroom strategies. It was also so nice to talk with other teachers about what practices work for them.”
Math Teacher
Upper Moreland High School
“The most valuable and enjoyable aspects of the program were bringing to light cultural norms and how they shape our reactions.”
S.P.
School District of Philadelphia
“It was very refreshing to know/hear we need not feel guilty for practicing self-care. There are so many demands on us, and we were feeling overwhelmed.”
R.G.
School District of Philadelphia
“The Inner Strength PD program provided me with a heightened sense of self-awareness and personal worth.”
K.M.
School District of Philadelphia
“Excellent strategies! Practicing easy meditation steps was a great way to introduce effective stress reduction. It was easy and now I can model for my students.”
T.S.
School District of Philadelphia
“The Inner Strength instructor’s care for us was evident. I will use these practices because mindful practices impact human relationships. These practices make our work during stressful situations more sustainable.”
C.W.
School District of Philadelphia
“It was amazing to see the power that this gave the teachers to help them create space for themselves.”
E. G
School District of Philadelphia
“Very useful and practical!”
K.J.
School District of Philadelphia