School Projects

Los Angelas, CA - YES! Brings Peace to LA High

In 2002, Los Angeles High School (LAHS) adopted the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES!) as an after school program.  Through the administration, they were able to offer the YES! program to students as an alternative to 6 sessions of their regular classes. 

YES! is no easy task:  it asks students to commit to 6 consecutive days of 3 hour sessions after their regular classes are over.  Why would busy high school students with challenging lives join an extra curricular class with such long hours, you may wonder? 

Well, at the end of the most recent YES! program in 2006, Karen, a participant, said:
"What I like about 'YES!' is that we learned new things, like how to do breathing techniques and yoga, and all the games we did with the lessons.  I like it because it makes me relax, and now I know how to pay attention during class at school.  I find I started to sleep earlier, and I have more energy."

Through various processes and techniques the YES! program reduces stress and educates participants in being more responsible. The administration of LAHS was looking for ways to correct the outbursts of violence, and the YES! program offered to minimize just that.  That is with the understanding that violence and stress are just two sides of the same coin. The students taught over the past 4 years at LAHS have reported various benefits including greater focus and concentration, regulated sleep, less anger and frustration (which leads to violent behavior), greater connectedness to their classmates (especially ones in other grade levels), and overall less stress.  Teachers have also confirmed that several of their students, after having gone through the YES! program, were more focused in class and more punctual.

To date, 300 of the 5000 member student body have participated in the YES! Course.

The teachers and administrators at LAHS are confident that as more and more students participate in YES!, such issues as violent crimes on campus grounds are sure to reduce and eventually disappear. 

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