Inclusive sustainability: using mindfulness education to reach disadvantaged youth

When young people are fully engaged, all of them are potentially brilliant. A recent study examined the use of mindfulness with disadvantaged young people in South Africa’s southern Cape, where students were able to improve... [ view full abstract ]

When young people are fully engaged, all of them are potentially brilliant. A recent study examined the use of mindfulness with disadvantaged young people in South Africa’s southern Cape, where students were able to improve their social integration as well as their academic performance. Another study looked at the impact of home vegetable gardens, where diversity of food choices increased but understanding of climate change and the importance of organic food production practices did not improve.

The studies both point to the effectiveness of interventions using mindfulness in empowering young people from marginal communities, but also to the need for critical mass in these interventions, which cannot be applied as an add-on but need to be given sufficient space and resources before they will have transformative effects on the opportunities available to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A new food security education and research programme is described based at the Garden Route Environmental Education Centre in the southern Cape to assist natural science scholars and farmers with mindful scientific observation.

Keywords: mindfulness, agro-ecology, environmental education.