Inner Explorer

Evidence-based mindfulness program improves youth mental health and well-being

Inner Explorer’s mission is to make the daily practice of mindfulness approachable and accessible for all school communities. They work to equip educators, students and their families with valuable social-emotional skills that foster human potential serving to inoculate them against stress and poverty.

Their daily mindfulness practice program includes a series of 5–10-minute daily audio-guided exercises with four age-appropriate levels from preschool through high school. The daily practices teach breathing and relaxation, understanding emotions, gratitude, focus, empathy, self-control and self-regulation.

Teachers and students practice mindfulness together, so the student becomes “ready to learn” and the teacher becomes “ready to teach.”

GreenLight’s investment in Inner Explorer came during a critical time as the need to access preventative mental health resources for all children across the country, especially those in under-resourced communities, skyrocketed largely due to the pandemic.

In the Twin Cities, young people’s social, emotional, and mental well-being continues to be adversely impacted, leaving them stressed, anxious, and struggling to cope, especially students of color who must also contend with systemic barriers including a lack of access to affordable, culturally responsive care.

Research suggests a generation of children practicing mindfulness every day would have the ability to process trauma in healthier ways, have fewer mental health and substance disorders, would be creative and discerning in the face of conflict and would have more compassion for one another. While others imagine this world, Inner Explorer is working to make it a reality.

Inner Explorer is already in all Minneapolis Head Start locations and is in conversation with multiple school districts and after-school community programs to pilot.