🎥 “The only thing that can slow my traumatized brain down.”
In our mindfulness groups for justice-impacted and gun violence survivors, there are individuals who carry stories of unimaginable trauma and resilience.
One woman joined our sessions every week for almost a year. After being shot in the head and serving thirty years in prison, she was learning how to live in a world that had changed completely. She told us, quietly:
“This is the only thing that can slow my traumatized brain down.”
That pause — that small, life-changing space between reaction and response — is where transformation begins.
This year, in partnership with Career Resources, we launched our 3 year weekly training program at the Lucy Baney Center for Family Reunification, a Level 1 Correctional Facility in Bridgeport and transitional home for women and mothers post-incarceration.
We’ve seen how mindfulness softens anger, quiets fear, and restores connection. Participants have celebrated each other gaining employment, reunions with their children, and new beginnings.
Staff and parole officers also share how this work has deepened compassion and connection:
“Staff let down our guard here; they see we’re human and we care.”
“It’s a space of peace — and that peace goes back to the whole Center.”
📽️ WATCH Kim's Ripple Effect story
We’ve seen women practicing on their own time — sitting quietly on their beds, breathing in the outdoor yard, taking a mindful moment before a difficult conversation.
And in those pauses, violence lessens.
Anger shifts.
Relationships repair.
Lives rebuild.
Donate to Support Mindfulness After Incarceration >
This year, your support has allowed us to bring over 520 hours of mindfulness workshops, sessions and training programs like this one—reaching women, families, and individuals healing from trauma, addiction, and incarceration.
Our trauma-informed mindfulness programs restore balance, reduce burnout, and help those in need reconnect with themselves and their communities. By partnering with organizations that directly serve women and girls, and supporting the leaders behind them, we create a ripple effect of peace and hope that strengthens our entire community.
Because a single pause can change a life.
And one mindful person can center a room.
And we all deserve more kindness and connection in our lives.
In this stressful, heightened time, you can send peace, calm, and relief rippling through more families, more programs, and more hearts across our county. →
Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Ella Crivello
Community Mindfulness Project
At Community Mindfulness Project, we bring mindfulness programs to under-resourced communities, creating a healthier, happier, more connected Fairfield County, CT.