Flint, MI. (WJRT) – As we count down to next month’s big HAP Crime Festival of Race, we’re taking a closer look at the nonprofit behind it.
The Crim Fitness Foundation works year-round with many groups and businesses to promote health and wellness in Flint and Genesee County.
Through a partnership with the Genesee County Jail, inmates learn about the power of the mind.
Krim designed a six-week mindfulness and mental wellbeing course for the Ignite programme. It refers to the growth of the inmates both naturally and consciously through education.
In 2022, about 50 inmates began meeting once a week for an hour.
Percy Glover is the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office Executive Director of Community Engagement. He said the course was making a big difference to inmates from different backgrounds. Glover said many are already struggling with issues such as mental health, substance abuse and chronic poverty when they come to prison.
“That struggle, I’m here worrying about how my partner, spouse and kids are doing now because I can’t support them and we were already in bad shape financially.”
Dina Schaller of the Crim Mindfulness Initiative explained how the training works.
“We have a little discussion about the brain and brain science and neuroscience, how it works, and some are like old habits…how you fall into these habits. A lot of it is a practice where we do meditations like loving-kindness meditation, self-compassion meditation.”
Schaller said the course has had great results.
“After three sessions…participants fill out this survey. We found a statistically significant decrease in depressive symptoms and a statistically significant increase in coping mechanisms.
Prisoners will be able to use the technology for the rest of their lives and pass it on to their families in the future, the prison said.
It is planned to continue offering the course.