Our Mission
We share mindfulness practices with people who are under-resourced for their self-empowerment, healing and community well–being. We serve people who are incarcerated, returning citizens, people transitioning from homelessness and those in substance abuse treatment. Mindfulness practices help our students gain clarity, insight, and compassion. These populations experience a high rate of trauma, addiction and related health disorders but also have limited access to medical services.
Mindfulness is a training in greater observation and less reactivity, away from “automatic pilot” and toward responding in a way that aligns with what we value for ourselves and our communities. We use the highly respected evidence-based Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction model (MBSR) as our foundation. What makes us unique is that, in addition to MBSR, the IOI curriculum is tailored to the populations we serve and includes ethics. Based on non-harming and compassion for the self and others, we use conversations as a teaching tool, framing inquiries so that our participants investigate for themselves how they are making choices based on values that deserve consideration.
““I don’t consider myself a religious person. I’m probably more of a spiritual but not religious person. . . these questions are about: What does it mean to be in the right relationship to one another? Who belongs in a community, in a nation? How should we treat the least advantaged? What do we owe to one another? How do we repair harm? What does it mean to face irreparable harm in a constructive and responsible way?”
”