David Troutman and Fiona Jensen of Calmer Choice.
HYANNIS – Calmer Choice is a community-based grassroots effort to help teens learn coping methods when faced with the unique perils that adolescence brings.
Calmer Choice President Fiona Jensen of Cotuit founded the nonprofit as a way to help her daughter and her daughter’s friends who were in crisis after several fellow Barnstable High School students died in 2008.
The program, which teaches a technique called “mindfulness,” is now in numerous public schools across the Cape. Jensen and others associated with Calmer Choice have given talks about the program at conferences around the country.
According to Jensen, mindfulness increases attention, decreases symptoms of anxiety, increases self-esteem, increases quality of sleep. In the classroom, she said, it helps with emotional regulation, coping strategies, reduces conflict and can even improve academic achievement.
In recent years, the following schools have participated in the program: Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis; Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans; Ezra Baker Elementary School in Dennis; Quashnet Elementary School in Mashpee; Youth in Progress After School Program in Hyannis; St. Peters Nursery School in Osterville; Nauset Youth Alliance After School Program in Brewster; Nauset Middle School in Orleans; Chatham Middle School in Chatham and Mashpee High School in Mashpee.
The program has caught on, Jensen said, because it helps schools to help students to achieve. By teaching them how to focus, the program fits in with the curriculum, Jensen said.
It has even helped in ways not first imagined by the founders of the group. At Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich, students said the programs methods have helped them to become better athletes.
Jensen said she is not surprised, because the idea of focus has become prevalent in a variety of industries, including professional sports. At a conference on the West Coast, Jensen said she met the “mindfulness” staffer for the Seattle Sea Hawks.
David Troutman, a board member for Calmer Choice, encouraged parents who are interested in getting the program in their child’s school to approach the administration about it. That is the best way to spread the word, he said.
Listen below to hear Fiona Jensen and David Troutman talk about Calmer Choice.
