This Friday, May 11, Brooklyn Zen Center will hold a day-long sit-a-thon to raise funds for the Awake Youth Project, a program that the Zen center runs in partnership with Brooklyn College Community Partnership to bring mindfulness and meditation programs to Brooklyn youth. “Many of the young people with whom we work live with considerable economic hardship and risk for violence,” say the staff members of Awake Youth Project, “They struggle with enormous stress, anxiety, anger and other strong emotions that make an already demanding life schedule all the more difficult. Consequently Awake Youth Project’s high school-based groups employ meditation and mindfulness practices to address the many challenges in the lives of our youth.”
Now in it’s fourth year, Awake Youth Project launched the annual Brooklyn Sit-a-thon to raise $40,000 from participants willing to ask their family, friends, and communities to sponsor them in a day of sitting meditation. The money raised will go toward staffing, supplies, and space so that Brooklyn’s teens can come together to support one another in meditation and mindfulness practices that support all other aspects of their lives as they mature and deepen into members of the community. Brooklyn Zen Center will also use the funds to expand to new schools.
If you’re interested in participating in the Brooklyn Sit-a-thon, click here.
To learn more about Awake Youth Project and to meet some of the teens who have benefited from the program, check out this sneak preview of Tricycle’s upcoming profile of the program:
Sneak Preview from Tricycle on Vimeo.