With the Los Angeles inner-city dropout rate at 50 percent and suicide the third leading cause of adolescent death in the nation, it’s not difficult to see that many of the next generation are floundering. Compounding the problem, the federal and state government are both poised for further funding cuts to education, leaving the concerned community to pick up the slack.
Sometimes help comes in the realm of the practical; for example, Common Vision‘s Fruit Tree Tour plants orchards in low income neighborhoods, simultaneously teaching kids how to grow their own food and offering them a source of nutrition that is particularly valuable in neighborhoods more abundant in fast food than grocery markets.
Other groups, like WriteGirl, offer tools for the mind. Professional writers in this group volunteer to mentor students in classrooms, monthly workshops and one-on-one, helping them to develop writing skills and insights, gain confidence and find new avenues of self-expression.
But what about spirit? Not religion, but a connection with their own precious inner spark. At a few local high schools, the Yes program—Youth Empowerment Seminar—is teaching students the power of breath in regulating their emotions, managing stress and increasing their ability to focus; in other words, getting centered. The kids are learning and practicing sudarshan kriya, the rhythmic healing breath. Tests have shown that this breathing technique confers beneficial effects on brain and hormone function, and a comparison study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences of India showed it to be statistically as effective as some conventional treatments for depression.
Yes hopes to empower young people “to move from a place where they are merely influenced by their environment, to having an influence on their environment; [and] to ensure that tomorrow’s voices for peace and unity are stronger than those of violence.” 
Originally introduced in 1998 as an after-school program, Yes was later brought into the curriculum as part of PE, life skills and health classes. Last spring it was introduced at four inner city high schools—Los Angeles High, Hollywood High, West Adams Prep and APEX Academy—with notable results. Now eight more LA schools are in queue to bring in the program.
When groups like these work with teens, the results don’t affect just one area of the kids’ lives. They give them a sense of belonging to a positive group and having some control over their environment, and it may be the rare accomplishment they feel proud of, so it helps their self-esteem as well. Perhaps best of all, it may be the thing that keeps them in school.
Read more inspiring stories…
~ The Power of Giving
~ Cool to Be Kind
