Divided Attention

DIVIDED ATTENTION, When the children who need the most, receive the least.

Directed by Stephanie Ramones, Divided Attention follows four students from Toby Farms, a public middle school in the historically underfunded Chester Upland School District, as they learn and practice mindfulness amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the school to prison pipeline, and threat of charter takeover.

Divided Attention is meant to serve as a call-to-action to address inequitable school funding for varied audiences such as students, parents and community members.

The film also serves to model how mindfulness skills instruction could be implemented in schools to impact students' social emotional wellbeing and potentially replace punitive practices.

Divided Attention is meant to serve as a call-to-action to address inequitable school funding for varied audiences such as students, parents and community members.

The film also serves to model how mindfulness skills instruction could be implemented in schools to impact students' social emotional wellbeing and potentially replace punitive practices.

PARTNERS

The Education Advocacy Program at Delaware County Advocacy and Resource Organization (DCARO) organizes a Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council (PADDC) project aimed at combating the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The program serves the Chester-Upland School district by providing teacher and student training in research proven techniques (Mindfulness and Collaborative and Proactive Solutions) to develop emotional and behavioral regulation skills with the goal of ameliorating punitive practices. https://www.delcoadvocacy.org

PhillyCAM is a noncommercial community media organization in Philadelphia that provides transformative opportunities for people and communities to express themselves, to learn from each other, and to produce and share media reflective of the experiences of everyday people. Throughout the film, PhillyCAM supported in training a few mindfulness students so they could document their journey and reflections at home. www.phillycam.org

This project is supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council; in part by grant number 2001PASCDD-02, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.  Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions.  Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy. https://www.paddc.org/