Team Peace
Impact
Our Goal
Acknowledge, address, and educate the whole person – child or adult – by recognizing the role that social, emotional, physical, & mental health plays in a person’s ability to thrive in school & society.
said our programs & the tools they have learned have helped them with stress or big emotions
said the tools they learned in our programs help them to calm down when they are upset
said the tools they learned help them to focus better in the classroom
the tools they learned have helped them to feel happier
Team Peace Growth
- Team Peace has grown from serving about 25 kids in Spring of 2019 to about 900 in the 2022-2023 school year.
- In 2022-2023 school year – 41 elementary school classrooms + Self-Care Club at Paoli Jr Sr High School + a regular Yoga & Mindfulness Class at Orleans Jr Sr High School
- About 2000 children & youth total in 4 years.
Improvement
Teachers said our program helped most kids improve:
- Ability to Pay Attention
- Ability to Settle Down
- Self-Awareness
- Emotional Awareness
- Regulation of Emotions
What are schools saying?
"Kara Schmidt and Team Peace have been coming to our school bi-weekly to do yoga, bal-a-vis-x and mindfulness lessons for a year and a half. It has been amazing to see how the students who have regularly attended are growing in both their physical skills and their mental health!"
Kate Jones
Orleans High School Counselor
"I feel this program has changed their lives in a very positive and lasting way, making them better prepared for the world ahead of them. I'm so thankful for the time she has invested in my students and I!"
Jessica Johnson
Sixth Grade Science and Social Studies Teacher, Orleans Elementary
"The Team Peace program improves health, vitality, body awareness, balance, and coordination. Moreover, the program fosters self-esteem, cultivates self-awareness, educates the whole child, provides focus, encourages acceptance of differences, teaches stress-management techniques, and creates positive peer interactions. Our elementary school has implemented this program for five years."
Dr. Stephany Carr
Throop Elementary Principal
" Ms. Kara has been visiting my 6th graders every other week for 30 minutes to an hour. Mystudents always look forward to her time in the classroom and have gained so much from her! But they aren't the only ones who have benefitted from her time with us. I've been able to use the tools to help students work through stressful situations, refocus, and just take moments throughout the day to breathe."
Jessica Johnson
Sixth Grade Science and Social Studies Teacher, Orleans Elementary
"We are looking forward to the continued support of Kara Schmidt and Team Peace to help our students with the big emotions and anxiety that many of our students experience due to childhood trauma and adverse living conditions. With the help of Team Peace, we hope to build healthier, happier students who can learn to thrive in challenging situations.”
Carol Eubank
Paoli High School Teacher
"This trauma-informed program has an astounding effect on Throop Elementary students. Every year, the program evolves, and more students' lives are changed forever. This program must continue to ensure little learners develop the necessary skills to be successful in today's world.”
Dr. Stephany Carr
Throop Elementary Principal
"A recent anonymous survey on the program opened my eyes even more to the effectiveness of the Mindfulness Program. Students are using breathing strategies before basketball and volleyball games, in dealing with tension at home and school, to refocus themselves and avoid fights, to relieve anxiety before tests or presentations and the list goes on and on! It's so clear how much the students truly NEED and USE the skills Ms. Kara has taught them."
Jessica Johnson
Sixth Grade Science and Social Studies Teacher, Orleans Elementary
"The curriculum Kara Schmidt, the director, implements delves into the six developmental learning domains: cognitive, language, academics, social, physical, and emotional. Students are taught self-awareness and self-regulation skills through teamwork and cooperation with pre-and post-tests to determine growth."
Dr. Stephany Carr
Throop Elementary Principal
"In my classroom of upper elementary students, the Mindfulness program by Kara Schmidt offers students ways to help themselves get regulated and lets them know that it is normal to need strategies to help them get back on track. This is a lifelong strategy that they are gaining. Each session is meaningful and insightful for me as a teacher as well as my class.”
Jennifer Keller
5th Grade Teacher, Orleans Elementary School
"I look forward to yoga every week we have it! Even though I never have enough time for it, I make myself calm down and it makes me a better school counselor, a better friend, a better person. I am able to use these skills with kids and teach them how to help themselves when they are feeling deregulated and that is worth so much!"
Kate Jones
School Counselor Orleans Jr. Sr. High School