Trauma stabs at the lives of Philadelphia urban youth. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 3 inner city youth suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from living in urban warzones. Learning is compromised when fear and despair lie unaddressed within a child.

This summer, I want to fund a 16 lesson unit focused on resilience and trauma-informed education as part my summer math camp.

Last July, my Math Corps Philadelphia raised the median scores of nineteen 6th/7th graders from F to B+ in 4 weeks. 1 hour/day for 4 weeks we taught Positive Psychology--lesson plans cobbled from informal practices. One Affirmation of the Day came from 6th grader Cai’Asia: “For every setback there is a comeback.”

This summer I want to do better. In March, I earned a Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (C.A.P.P.). Presently Lisa Nwankwo of BRIDGE and I are creating a curriculum of 16 lessons whose foundation is her work--yoga and personal narrative as modalities to heal trauma.

A 2014 study by Bessel Van der Kolk demonstrated the greater efficacy of yoga over talk therapy in treating PTS. Trauma resides in the body and deep in memory. Treat it first with a body intervention, and then use cognitive methods of personal story creation, signature strengths, growth mind set, and gratitude to learn resilience. All proven methods.