Live on WICC: Melissa in the Morning interview's Community Mindfulness Project ED, Ella Crivello (2024)
We’re grateful to Melissa Sheketoff of Melissa in the Morning for inviting our Executive Director, Ella Crivello back to yesterday’s segment of WICC 600. We were able to share more about what we do, and expand awareness for listeners on the need for accessible mental health tools in CT and the power of mindfulness.
Check out the full segment and the transcript from the interview below.
GIVE TO COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS PROJECT THIS SEASON
Full transcript
News and talk for Connecticut for over 97 years, WICC 600 AM and 107.3 FM, Back to Melissa in the Morning.
Melissa Sheketoff, WICC: Community Mindfulness Project is a nonprofit organization here in Connecticut that empowers all people to lead healthier lives by expanding access to mindfulness tools. And joining me to talk more about this today is Ella Crivello, who is the executive director of the Community Mindfulness Project.
Ella, welcome back to the show. How are you?
Ella Crivello, Community Mindfulness Project: Thank you, Melissa. Happy Thanksgiving week. How are you doing?
Melissa, WICC: I'm doing well. Thank you so much for asking, and I'm very excited to highlight the work of Community Mindfulness Project.
Can you do a deeper dive, though, into, when you say “empowering people to lead healthier lives…” by getting them more mindfulness tools under their belts, what do you mean by that?
Ella, CMP: Yes, absolutely. So we think of mindfulness as a skill set.
When you think about all of the weight of the world, we really look at mindfulness as a tool. It supports emotional regulation, stress management, and it also really fosters connection and community.
So we can think about integrating into that daily routine as if it's another tool in your toolbox for your healthcare, so like brushing your teeth, mindfulness is really something that you can do every day or once a month or once a year in the same way you can choose to brush your teeth as often or as little as you want to… but really a skill that's tapped into when it's needed and really can be for your mental health and your physical health.
Melissa, WICC: Ella, what have you found since the last time we spoke, which we check in at least once a year on the work that's being done by this nonprofit in our surrounding communities, what are you finding here in Connecticut?
What do you find the people who use your services? Why are they tapping into this nonprofit for help?
Ella, CMP: Yeah, thank you. It's been an incredible year, both of need and impact. Fairfield County, a lot of people aren't aware, has the second highest income inequality among all metropolitan areas in the country.
And we know that increased income inequality can really be associated with higher rates of crime, greater debt, stress and health outcomes associated with that are very high. And so when we're thinking about our impact and our focus and what we've really prioritized this year, we're really looking at, you know, how can we work in the community to expand access and training for these mental health tools for the most under-resourced of our community members.
So, you know, when we're thinking about this year alone, our work has really been around heavily focusing our neighbors in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stanford. And these three cities have just statistically the highest unmet mental health and physical health needs. And we work in partnership with public schools, libraries, and community-based nonprofits. When we think about choosing those groups, it's really going back to the data.
Connecticut educators, in 2024, were surveyed. 97% of them are citing stress and burnout as their top concern. And so when we're thinking about our work in Bridgeport Public Schools or Norwalk Public Schools, we're not only working with the teachers and the students, which are absolutely critical in terms of supporting them and their health needs, but also the nurses and the security guards.
And just thinking about how this matters for everyone, just like in an airplane, when the adults in the room are putting on their oxygen masks first, they can serve and support the young people better.
So it's been an incredible year. We're working with over 4,500 community members this year through nearly 600 programs. And we're very proud and humbled to do the work that we do every day.
Melissa, WICC: And you actually answered one of my questions, Ella, which was, who are you serving?
I mean, because immediately, when you hear mental health, a lot of the times are leading by example, you think youth. And certainly, it does sound like you are serving youth. But I am glad that the other half of the pie is that you've got the adults.
And I love the analogy of putting your mask on first. I mean, burnout, certainly, stress, anxiety, the unknowns of the future. I mean, these are things that I think grip the average Connecticut resident, regardless of their age.
So I love that. You talk to any spectrum, it sounds like, of people. Bring me to one of those phone calls, OK, Ella? So let's say I call you right now. I am a youth, or I guess I'm an adult, whatever, whatever.
And I call, and I want your help with this. What does that look like? Like, what kind of help can you give me to get more more? mindfulness tools, and to find better balance in the things I'm struggling with mentally.
Ella, CMP: I just want to kind of reemphasize what you shared. This is for everyone age three to 103. I actually do this with my four-year-old and could with my grandmother, who unfortunately is suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
This is something that-
Melissa, WICC: Oh, I'm sorry.
Ella, CMP: Thank you, thank you, but I know I'm not the only one. This is something that is a tool that we can tap into in a skill that we can tap into for everyone. And so when we're thinking about how we're bringing this into the community, to your point in your question, we look at- and listen to what the needs are.
And so, this is something that we do virtually. To your point, you know, you can call in. We have every week free and open sessions. No need to, you know, set an appointment, have a co-pay, go to our website, communitymindfulnessproject.org slash join us, and you can see our schedule, what we have in person and over the phone.
But we also, as I mentioned, work in partnership. We really kind of listen to the needs across a wide range of organizations and neighbors that those organizations are serving. So, we work very closely with organizations that are serving those in recovery from substance use disorders, frontline workers, teen moms and dads, you know, individuals with chronic illness.
And when we're looking at that, you know, broad range of population, we actually create programs together in partnership where we can really bring heightened awareness to the value of these tools, how it works, and really give people that agency to figure out how this looks for them.
You know, this is not gonna be one size fits all in the same way that everyone's minds and bodies are different. We have to find the ways that this feels like it is supportive to them as individuals.
And so, we do that through really, you know, a broad range, but most effectively high dosage, you know, multi-week programs that we set up in partnership to really help people be aware of what these tools are and also learn the science behind it.
I mean, the science is amazing when you really kind of go down to, you know, when you think about taking a moment for yourself and really pausing to actually listen to your breath, listen to your body, you know, there's huge benefits around emotional regulation and focus, resilience, but also compassion, lowering levels of anxiety, depression, lowering OCD impacts and also reducing blood pressure, reducing inflammation, chronic pain. I mean there's actual research around how this can improve your sleep and even protect against Alzheimer's which is why I mentioned my grandmother and so it is incredible and we really like to make sure that we are providing that awareness and then for some of our community members that want to take another in-depth step.
We also have training and courses where they can think about how they bring this you know if it's social workers who are bringing this to their clients or you know teachers bringing this to their students but also caregivers who just want to make sure that they have stronger relationships with their family members with their spouses with their kids.
We really make sure that we kind of can help people to understand that this is for you and we are here to help you really understand what that looks like to support your daily health.
Melissa, WICC: And I do want to remind folks that there are certainly ways that you can get involved with this wonderful nonprofit that has been around for a decade here in Connecticut and you also can donate I mean what a great time to highlight this this a wonderful group of people the Community Mindfulness Project because a week from today is Giving Tuesday and people want to know where their dollars are going and this is going back to people in your communities who need that support mentally physically and partners like community mindfulness project they are dedicated to giving that type of support to everyday people here in Connecticut so definitely check out their website communitymindfulnessproject.org again communitymindfulnessproject.org and Ella Crivello I want to thank you so much executive director of the community mindfulness project for sharing all of this information with us here on WICC especially ahead of Giving Tuesday next week we really appreciate it.
Ella, CMP: Thank you so much, Melissa.