The university has concluded that the classes did not meet requirements for “scale, impact and efficacy”, despite research that demonstrates the benefit of such coursesLouis Ashworth for Varsity

The university has cancelled its “mindfulness skills for students programme”, which has run since 2015 and been used by over 2,500 students.

Cambridge alumni have signed an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Deborah Prentice, calling for the classes to be reintroduced. The programme helped them to navigate the “relentless” pressures placed on students at the University, they said.

Mindfulness is a practice that encourages an intentional focus on the present moment without evaluation or judgment.

Charlotte Hofton, a graduate of Lucy Cavendish College, described the programme as a life-saver. “I cannot comprehend why anybody should suppose that the mindfulness project, whose benefits are utterly proven, should cease”, they told The Guardian.

Dr Rowan Williams, former Master of Magdalene College and former Archbishop of Canterbury told The Guardian: “The most effective way of responding [to concerns around student mental health], is not instantly to ‘medicalise’ all the problems but to provide tools that will genuinely help young people care for themselves and develop habits of self-understanding and self-awareness”.

“The mindfulness programme has offered exactly this, and I think the ending of support for it is very bad news indeed,” Williams said.

In response to the campaign to save the programme, a university spokesperson said: “We have a responsibility to routinely evaluate our services to ensure their effectiveness in supporting students. The centrally run mindfulness classes were brought to an end following careful consideration of their scale, impact and efficacy”.

This decision has been made despite the University’s own research suggesting the benefit of such courses. A study assessing the benefits of mindfulness programmes on mental health, led by Dr Julieta Galante and published in July of this year, found conclusive evidence that “adults who voluntarily take part in mindfulness courses are less likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression for at least six months after completing the programmes, compared to adults who do not take part”.

The news of this cancellation comes as student welfare is facing college-level cuts, though the university spokesperson stressed that the cancellation of the mindfulness programme is not due to financial reasons.

Referring to the University’s Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan 2022-2025, the spokesperson claimed Cambridge was “committing £4.75m to student mental health services” over this period.

“We offer a wide range of student support including counselling, wellbeing and mental health, harassment and violence, and accessibility and disability support services, alongside additional academic and wellbeing support available to students via their college”, said the University.

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!

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Bronwyn Benstead, second left, and Kevin Karaca were helped by friends Ethan Cairns, Lizzie Henshaw, Martyn Stonehouse and Ed Pountney to get the premises ready for opening. (Photo: Submitted)

Bronwyn Benstead and Kevin Karaca have set up a Community Interest Company in which profits are reinvested towards subsidising classes for those who need it. Every class paid for at Kula helps to fund subsidised passes and helps teachers hold regular ‘pay what you can’ classes for all.

Kevin, who teaches mindfulness, said: “We have tiered pricing. Not everyone is in the economic position to pay for classes. Our Oak passes are the true prices at Kula, but we also have Elm passes which are our effort to make access to classes within reach.”

If you can’t commit to a membership, you can drop in to classes or attend Karma Classes that are pay-what-you-can, between £2 and £10. The next Karma class will be held on October 1.

Daniel Smith, Bronwyn Benstead, Elaine Rudge, Simon Paterson, Ana Ochoa-de-Eribe, Lizzie Henshaw, Martyn Stonehouse at a Slow Social meet-up for company founders and business owners which is held on the third Friday of the month at Kula. (Photo: Submitted)

Kula, which is based at 7 Mansfield Road, Hasland, will host an open weekend September 22 to 24 when visitors can try a class for £5. These 45-minute taster classes including mindful flow, chair yoga, introduction to yoga, restorative flow, Vinyasa flow and embodied yin. Space is limited so places must be booked in advance on www.wearekula.co.uk

A six-week Introduction to Yoga class will start on October 3, running on Tuesdays at 8pm.

Kevin, a copywriter and marketing strategist, said: “We’re firstly trying to establish Kula in Hasland and then we hope to expand our work into other local communities in the area. We’re not wanting to be huge, but we recognise that smaller, intimate spaces where people can come together has huge value. Whether that’s to practice yoga, learn mindfulness, or run a community event. Being able to speak and meet everyone present matters. It’s also less intimidating.”

Yoga teacher Bronwyn, who hails from Doncaster, and Kevin, who grew up in Brighton, met four years ago while working at Rab which manufactures clothing and equipment for climbers and mountaineers. Kevin said: “We were both new to the area and enjoyed hiking and climbing and it all went from there. In October 2019 we bought our first house in Spital.”

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Bronwyn Benstead is a registered yoga teacher (photo: Lizzie Henshaw Photography)

Bronwyn, a forecasting and analytics manager at Equip, said: “We moved to Chesterfield just before lockdown. Those two years were hard not knowing anyone and as we’ve gotten to know more poeple, we’ve heard the same story repeating itself. People saying they want to meet others and saying they want to look after themselves.”

The couple took over the former party shop in Hasland which they transformed in just 10 days into the space now occupied by Kula. Kevin said: “The landlord had done the hard work of white-boxing the property. We got keys on August 4 and started scraping plaster off the floor to make it even that afternoon.” A paint party followed the next day and five days after that Bronwyn’s dad Steve and Kevin worked for 14 hours to lay laminate flooring.

A recent Crowdfunder appeal has raised £1,740 towards making the space more warm and welcoming and providing yoga chairs.

Since August 14 Kula has hosted 14 group classes, facilitated eight private classes and been visited by 39 students.

Kula is based at 7 Mansfield Road, Hasland. (Photo: Submitted)

Kevin and Bronwyn had a paint party at the premises which was turned into a welcoming space in just 10 days. (Photo: Submitted)

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The 30 or so people who logged on to hear about the trans-Atlantic slave trade Wednesday night was just what Pastor Kenneth Johnson had hoped for – a sign that his congregation in Fort Pierce, Florida, was interested in learning more about Black history.

The hour-long video class was the first of a series Friendship Missionary Baptist Church plans to host this fall.

“It wasn’t a sermon. It would have passed any muster as a legitimate class,” said Johnson. “We don’t need government approval to teach our history.”

Friendship Missionary is among the more than 200 mostly Black churches in Florida taking steps to teach Black history in part because of what faith leaders call the restricted and “watered-down’’ versions schools must teach under the state’s new policies. Instead, pastors equipped with a new Black history toolkit are teaching unfiltered lessons during Sunday school, Bible Study or as part of sermons.

Faith in Florida, a coalition of churches advocating for social justice causes, created the online toolkit, which includes books, documentaries and videos related to Black history. The project, launched in July, aims to push back against state efforts to regulate Black history lessons. Florida is one of several states where mostly conservative lawmakers are leading movements to restrict some teachings of Black history.

“We have a responsibility as a whole to make sure our history is not erased or watered down and that it be told,’’ said Rhonda Thomas, executive director of Faith in Florida. “It happened. It’s history.’’

This is not a new role for Black churches, which have long filled education gaps in their communities, historians said. But many said these lessons are needed now as much as ever.

“It’s not farfetched to think that a (Black) church is going to be able to provide educational opportunities where they see public institutions failing,’’ Howard Robinson, a historian at Alabama State University in Montgomery, said.

Black history is under attack across US from AP African American Studies to ‘Ruby Bridges’

Read more:Black history is under attack across US from AP African American Studies to ‘Ruby Bridges’

What DeSantis said about Black history, slavery

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has led efforts across the state to embrace policies that restrict how certain topics, including race, sexuality and gender, are taught in schools and colleges.

Earlier in the year, DeSantis signed legislation that banned the use of state funds to support diversity and inclusion programs at public universities. “This has basically been used as a veneer to impose an ideological agenda and that is wrong,” he said in May.

Florida also banned the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course. Advanced placement studies are college-level courses taught to high school students who can often earn college credit. State officials have said African American history is already taught in schools. They’ve said some of the course material violates state law and take issue with the inclusion of lessons on the Black Lives Matter social justice movement, Black feminism and reparations.

DeSantis’ office referred USA Today to the Florida Department of Education for further comment. The department did not immediately respond.

In July, the state Board of Education adopted social studies standards for teaching African American history to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Supporters said the standards include factual information, but critics argue the standards omit important parts of history, including the state’s role in slavery and the disenfranchisement of Black people and violent attacks against them. Civil rights and faith leaders also criticized language that said slaves developed skills that could be used for their personal benefit.

DeSantis, who is running for president in 2024, has defended the curriculum.

“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” he said in July.

The Rev. Gaston Smith, pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Miami, said he was offended by DeSantis’ remarks. “If anybody benefitted from slavery, America benefitted from slavery,” he said.

‘It’s not just a Florida problem’

Smith spent last week in Bible study not only teaching from the Acts of the Apostles, but also about the struggles LaVon Bracy faced when she integrated Gainesville High School in the 1960s and became the first African American student to graduate from there.

He also turned to the toolkit for help and intentionally started with the topic of injustices because of the debate over race issues in Florida.

Smith and other pastors said they’re using the toolkit as a guide to map out lesson plans. The toolkit has about a dozen topics, including from “Africa to America,” which focuses in part on the slave trade, and “Racial Terrorism and Civil Unrest,” which includes works about the Civil Rights Movement. It offers recommendations for Black history books, videos, documentaries and other resources.

Smith, who taught about 100 churchgoers last week, hopes to also reach others through virtual services and other platforms. He said he’s disappointed state officials restricted what educators can teach about Black history.

“We can’t dwell on the fact of what they say we can’t do,” he said. “If nowhere else, the children will get it in church.”

Tony F. Drayton, lead pastor of St. James Church in Riviera, near West Palm Beach, said it’s on more faith leaders and community leaders to teach African American history.

“We have such a captive audience,” said Drayton, who helped develop the toolkit. “From the pulpit, we have to be as woke as possible. I’m going to use that word intentionally.’’

The toolkit aims to help those new to Black history, as well as those well versed in it. Topics were chosen in part based on chronology and the importance of issues, such as criminal justice and Black women’s leadership.

Drayton stressed it’s not a curriculum, but a guide to resources and that the toolkit will continue to be updated.

Thomas said she’s also heard from faith leaders of mostly white churches interested in the toolkit. She’s also getting calls from faith leaders in states like Alabama, Georgia and Virginia.

“It’s not just a Florida problem,’’ she said.

And if educators cannot teach it, “then we will go back to where it started,’’ said Thomas. “Our churches will teach our own history.”

Black churches teach Black history, civil rights

The church has long served as the hub of civic engagement in Black communities.  It was often faith leaders who led protests and helped set up Freedom Schools during the Civil Rights Movement. In the schools, students, many of them adults, were taught to read and recite parts of the state Constitution, which was sometimes required to register to vote. The tactic was used to turn away Black citizens, who were not allowed to read during slavery.

The Black church still provides space and human resources, including teachers, to help with education, Robinson said. “The church is going to pull a whole cross-section of the Black community into its sphere so you’re going to have an expertise in the church that you’re not going to have in some other institutions,’’ he said.

Many Black colleges also have their origins in the Black church, including Alabama State University.

“The tradition of self-help is central to the Black experience,’’ Robinson said. “This is a present manifestation of it because of what’s happening in Florida.”

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a history professor at Harvard University in Massachusetts, said Black communities have a long tradition of teaching the truth about their past because “the freedom to learn has always been subject to legal and physical attacks.’’

“In the tradition of Freedom Schools and Black resistance to Jim Crow, Black students will benefit from what these churches will teach them,’’ he said. “It’s really a matter of life or death.’’

Muhammad said other students should also be taught the lessons. “The problem is that white, Latinx and Asian American students need to learn the truth of African American history too,’’ he said.

Some worry about history repeating

At Johnson’s church in Fort Pierce, members can join the Black history class Wednesdays via Zoom. The church also plans to air sessions on its Facebook page. The next series will focus on Black women.

“Even the governor is welcome to attend,” Johnson said.

“I find it kind of disrespectful and even condescending to have our governor or anyone tell us what we’re allowed to learn…History is history,’’ he said. “I know it can be tainted by those who write it, but if we’re going to be who we’re called to be we have to know what we’ve been.’’

During a sermon last month at New Generation Missionary Baptist, Thomas focused on Black history in South Florida sharing how a community once called Colored Town was later changed to Overtown.

It was there in the heart of Miami that Black residents could see Black celebrities who were in town to perform at whites-only venues. The community – a mecca of Black culture – was devastated after the state built a highway through it.

“I want to make a point that history is not that far from where we are now,’’ Thomas said. “And if we’re not careful, it will repeat itself.”

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One form of mindfulness: Taking in the environment around you with all of our senses.

Ballard Pediatrician Sarah Bergman Lewis’ definition of mindfulness paraphrases from mindfulness researcher Jon Kabat Zinn: “It’s the practice of noticing what is happening in the present moment and responding without judgment.”

However you define it, there is no question that learning meditation or mindful focus is simple and fun and will help kids and parents reduce anxiety and reactivity and strengthen resiliency. 

Mindfulness and Compassion Program

Bergman is one of the facilitators in the Mindfulness and Compassion Program offered by Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic . The program makes it very easy to try out mediating by participating in one of their free programs for parents and families. Just sign up and show up to give it a try. 

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A free mindful scavenger hunt for the family at Camp Long on June 10th in Spanish

A Mindfulness Scavenger Hunt is being offered in Spanish for families with kids ages infant – 5 years at beautiful Camp Long in West Seattle. Saturday, June 10, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Enjoy fun movement activities, breathing exercises, a scavenger hunt, and lunch!   The event is free, including lunch, but you must pre-register. Registration deadline is June 8th at noon for the June 10th  Scavenger Hunt in Spanish.

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Promoting collective well-being

The program aims to promote individual, family, and collective well-being. Mindfulness and compassion techniques can help parents and kids face challenges with a cool head and cope with stressful times. And practicing together breaks down isolation, helping people find strength in knowing others understand their struggles.

“Our program was started by a group of parents of children with disabilities and complex health challenges who recognized a need for mindfulness within their own community but did not see a model that felt accessible,” says Bergman Lewis, a pediatrician and mindfulness facilitator. “This group of mothers created the program that they wish they had had themselves.” Today, program developers and leaders come from the communities served by the clinic, including parents of children with disabilities and Black, Latinx, and Somali communities.

For more family friendly things to do, news, events and travel, sign up for Seattle’s Child newsletters

Community-led, culturally relevant

Most importantly, practices shared by program facilitators are “culturally relevant, trauma-sensitive, healing-centered,” and aimed at developing resilience.

“All of our facilitators are parents from the community,” stresses Tamiko Nietering, who coordinates the program at Odessa Brown. “Some of them are parents who’ve been participants in our classes in the past and are committed to spreading mindfulness and compassion in order to better support one another. It’s important for our team to represent the diverse and rich communities that we serve to hold culturally relevant spaces. 

“We value the life experiences and wisdom that our community members have and grow together in this work,” says Nietering. “This also helps in removing historical barriers that often exist in teaching mindfulness.”

Practicing attention

What does practicing mindfulness look like? Here are four practices suggested by the Kabot-Zinn and others:

• Use your full attention. Experience where you are with all of your senses. For example, while walking in a park, take time to deeply notice your surroundings. That means not just taking in what you see, but what you hear, smell, taste, and can touch.
• Follow your breath. When you have negative thoughts, sit down, take a deep breath, and close your eyes. Focus on your breath as it moves in and out of your body. 
• Openness. Intentionally bring an open, accepting, and discerning attention to everything you do. 
• Practice self-compassion. Treat yourself the way you would treat a beloved relative, good friend, or animal.
• Follow your breath. When you have negative thoughts, sit down, take a deep breath and close your eyes. Focus on your breath as it moves in and out of your body. 

More structured mindfulness exercises include full body scans, timed sitting meditation or walking meditation. During these 10- to 30-minute practices, the attention is focused slowly and deliberately on each part of the body (body scan), breathing (meditation), or the sensations or sounds of walking (walking meditation).

Join a free class

The Mindfulness and Compassion Program offers two class options: free weekly online (Zoom) drop-in classes and 6-week mindfulness courses. Classes are currently offered in English, Somali, and Spanish, although the program may expand to other languages. All classes include at least two mindfulness practices followed by group sharing. They are open to all ages. No experience with mindfulness is needed, and no registration is required. 

Classes in English are held Wednesdays from 8-9 p.m. Log into Zoom using the Zoom Meeting ID 5295971494. Or attend by phone by calling 346-248-7799.

Classes in Somali meet online on the last Friday of the month from 8 to 9 p.m. To get the Zoom information for the Somali class, email mindfulness@seattlechildrens.org.

Black Community program and Latinx Community programs both offer drop-in classes as well as 6-week courses. Other classes are designed specifically for families with children with intellectual or developmental disabilities, medical complexities, and children ages 0 – 5. Visit the Mindfulness and Compassion Program webpage or email mindfulness@seattlechildrens.org to learn about these specific community programs.

Just show up

“Drop-in sessions are a great way to try out our programs,” says Bergman Lewis. “No need to sign up in advance or have previous experience with mindfulness. We start with a quick check-in, and then two facilitators will each share a short practice. We talk about our experiences after each strategy. Practices may include mindful movement, breathing, or guided imagery.

Searching with the senses – join the hunt!

Another great way to check things out is to attend one of two mindfulness program’s upcoming outdoor scavenger hunts – one in English and one in Spanish. The hunts are an invitation for kids and caregivers to practice using their five senses as they search. Events are geared toward kids ages 0 to 5 and their caregivers. Each event will include lunch, movement activity, a scavenger hunt, breathing exercises, and more. Both events will occur from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Camp Long, 5200 35th Ave SW Dawson in Seattle. The English-speaking hunt will take place on June 3. The Spanish-speaking event happens on June 10.

For more information about Mindfulness and Compassion Program classes or events, call 206-833-5967 or email mindfulness@seattlechildrens.org.

More at Seattle’s Child:

Finding calm in mindfulness classes

Unmasking anxiety: Resources for families

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