RESOURCES AND RECAP
Led by: David Sampé
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SPEAKER: DAVID SAMPÉ
Watch this webinar:
Read David’s bio and description of his work below:
In 1993, David Sampé was 19 years old and confined at a Correction Corporation of America (now Civic Corps) facility, the first wave of prisons for profit. He was placed in a Youth Act Program that kept him, and others like him, locked in a 6’x9’ cell for eight months, 23½ hours a day. A part of him that went into that box never came out. Broken, like Humpty Dumpty, he was left to put himself back together again. Several years later, after multiple arrests and felony convictions, he became mentally unhinged and spiraled out of control.
Over the course of 25 years David has reconstructed his mind piece by piece and, through the practice of mindfulness and meditation, has turned a broken mind into a resilient one. These experiences have equipped him with the tools to guide men and women coming home from prison out of their fractured state and back into balance.
David has dedicated his life to this work, taking the Fredrick Douglas quote literally, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” His project, Article730, aims to offer mindfulness services to all public middle schools in the nation’s capital. The ultimate goal is to eradicate all in-school suspension/ detention centers and replace them with Wellness Centers, offering at-risk students in public schools the tools and techniques to heal and practice mindfulness instead of criminalizing them during their most fragile/confusing transition of their lives.
David is a Senior Production Advisor to the One in Four Podcast - humanizing, educating and elevating the conversation about re-entry of people who have been incarcerated, he is the Wellness and Meditation Coach of Aspire - an Entrepreneurial program that creates business opportunities for returning citizens, and on the board of PAVE (Parents Amplified Voices in Education), a non-profit organization that partners parents and leaders with schools and policymakers to develop diverse, safe, and nurturing schools for every child.
David drives this year’s agenda of adopting new legislation and policies that promote social and emotional support programs in the public schools in every ward of Washington DC
David shares two videos and some photos with us. Please feel free to watch these videos before the webinar. You don’t need to watch them to attend.
Resources shared by David:
Article 730 - Unbreakable
Creating a Culture of Calm with Music
We are aware how we have been conditioned into anti-black racism and, as a mindfulness practice community, we aim to support the unraveling of this conditioning as well as the growth of inclusive, equitable, and beloved communities. In order to do that, we must first understand the experience of people of African descent, including understanding how anti-blackness can be as overt as police killings and as subtle as unmindful speech or being passed over for a work promotion.
To quote the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers (WRAG) “Anti-Black racism is the foundation for the strategies, tactics, tools and cultural worldviews that propagate and maintain racial oppression, repression and exclusion in the U.S. and the world.”
Anti-black racism is the cause of enormous wealth disparities between White and Black individuals. And, anti-black racism is at the root of high rates of maternal disease and infant mortality rates in Black women. These are just two examples of the ways that anti-black racism affects our country daily.
Please join us for this webinar to hear more about David’s story and how it intersects with Anti-Blackness. With your support and presence, we will continue to bring awareness and transformation to these injustices.
FULL LONGER BIO:
Washington, D.C., 1993. David Sampé was 19 years old and confined at a Correction Corporation of America (now Civic Corps) facility, the first wave of prisons for profit. He was placed in a Youth Act Program that kept him, and others like him, locked in a 6’x9’ cell for eight months, 23½ hours a day. A part of him that went into that box never came out. Broken, like Humpty Dumpty, he was left to put himself back together again. Several years later, after multiple arrests and felony convictions, he became mentally unhinged and spiraled out of control.
Over the course of 25 years he has reconstructed his mind piece by piece and, through the practice of mindfulness and meditation, has turned a broken mind into a resilient one. These experiences have equipped him with the tools to guide men and women coming home from prison out of their fractured state and back into balance.
In 2015, while living in New York City, David founded Article730 to serve as a vehicle to guide returning citizens toward a healthy lifestyle beyond their mental confinement. In 2018, Article730 moved to its new home in Washington D.C. and expanded its mission. Taking the Fredrick Douglas quote literally, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Article730 aims to offer mindfulness services to all public middle schools in the nation’s capital. The ultimate goal is to eradicate all in-school suspension/ detention centers and replace them with Wellness Centers.
Article 730 recognizes the thread that links trauma to the most pivotal years in a young person's life: the middle school. This is a time when targeted interventions can have the most impact in changing outcomes. Article 730 seeks to reach boys and girls during their most important transition with programs dedicated to the exploration of the self. These programs encourage the youth to recognize the behavioral patterns within themselves in order to make better decisions and be more mindful of the present moment. This skill will enable them to make better choices and de facto disrupt the school to prison pipeline.
The goal is to offer at-risk students in public schools the tools and techniques to heal and practice mindfulness instead of criminalizing them during their most fragile/confusing transition of their lives. Music therapy is one of the tools used by Article 730, in addition to breath work and mindful exercises such as walking meditation and body movements. You can check out a video about the music program here.
In early 2019, David Sampe became a Senior Production Advisor to the One in Four Podcast, a local show that focuses on humanizing, educating and elevating the conversation about re-entry of people who have been incarcerated. In this role, Dave provides valuable advice to the podcast production process, the topics that need to be covered, and regularly makes media appearances to cross-promote the show. This media project has further highlighted the need for mental health and wellness services for those coming home from incarceration. .
In 2019, David was also invited to join the Aspire team (an Entrepreneurial program that creates business opportunities for returning citizens) as a Wellness and Meditation Coach. He remains devoted to this task not only make to make a positive contribution to the community, but also to help shift the narrative about those coming home from prison entirely.
Lastly, David was invited to join the board of PAVE (Parents Amplified Voices in Education), a non-profit organization that partners parents and leaders with schools and policymakers to develop diverse, safe, and nurturing schools for every child. David was specifically brought on to drive this year’s agenda of adopting new legislation and policies that promote social and emotional support programs in the public schools in every ward of Washington DC.