Wander | Unwind Your Mind
A Mindfulness App for Youth 11-13
The Problem
We live in a stressful world. And it’s hitting youth hard. According to the CDC, among adolescents being assessed for substance use disorder treatment, the most commonly reported reasons or substance use included seeking to feel mellow or calm, experimentation, and other stress-related motivations.
We know that youth often use alcohol and substances to cope with the stress and anxiety of every day life. But we also know: the earlier youth start using alcohol and substances, the more likely they will develop a problem in the future.
Learning to reduce stress and practice mindfulness can be the foundation for better mental health. And healthier decision making for today, and for a lifetime of strength-based prevention.
But how can we make learning to cope with your feelings cool?
Enter Wander
Our theory of change
Many youth substance prevention programs focus on education and intervention for high-schoolers. There’s a growing body of evidence, however, that supports teaching upstream prevention strategies from a younger age to prepare youth to make healthier decisions when it counts.
To prevent early substance use, we need to better equip youth to address stress in their lives. If we are able to do this, then we should see lower rates of and delayed first substance use.
Wander empowers youth to reach inward and become their own prevention system by discovering and growing universally relevant skills of self-regulation, healthy coping, and mindfulness.
Wander 101
Even though there are a number of teacher-led programs focused on social emotional learning, our formative research revealed a gap in programs that are self-guided, accessible, sustainable, and scalable that would resonate with youth of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
That’s why Wander is made up of two complementary, standalone products:
An app designed for youth to use by themselves to explore the world of Wander and learn self-regulation, mindfulness, and coping skills.
An educator portal that exists to help teachers, coaches, and other trusted adults facilitate Wander activities with youth, alone or in a group setting.
To make Wander more attractive to our target audience, we developed a “brand” that defined Wander as “the cool way to cope”. Drawing on video game design and UX cues familiar to our audience, we honed in on activities including breathing and relaxation techniques, positive self-by themselves or worth and gratitude exercises, creative expression and meditations. We landed on an age appropriate trusted visual style with an avatar that takes youth inward and demonstrates that the skills they need to bolster their own wellbeing are already inside of them
Why Wander?
For many youth today, facing feelings isn’t fun. They experience stress and anxiety, but often can’t name those emotions or find relief in a healthful ways. They may learn social and emotional skills at school but can’t sustain those skills outside of the classroom. And they don’t know that learning mindfulness can be fun.
We created Wander to be the cool way to cope. Whether you’re tryin to chill out or check in, it’s always the right move. It’s the game that makes exploring your feelings fun. Because being in charge of our emotions is actually pretty cool.
The selling point: the Wander app helps you feel better when it counts.
Youth feel calm, confident, and less stressed when using Wander.
Wander is fun to play, no matter where you are or how long you have.
Wander can help you focus, gain confidence, and tap into your creative side.
When you level up in Wander, you level up your ability to deal with your difficult emotions in real life too.
The Results
During the summer of 2022, Wander was integrated into 12 summer camps throughout YMCAs and Boys & Girls Clubs statewide. Youth in these camps experience 15-20 minutes of daily game time over 6-8 weeks.
Results showed that Wander helped youth recognize their own emotions and gave then language to talk about them. Youth with regular use of Wander self-reported reduced levels of stress, improvements in sleep, and increased feelings of happiness and excitement around peers and school.
Experiencing stress decreased 33%
Feeling tired decreased 29%
Feeling of restlessness decreased 22%
Feeling a lack of focus decreased 19%
Feeling irritated decreased 11%
Wander In the Classroom
Educators are overworked, underpaid, and extremely stressed. And the increased stress and anxiety their kids are experiencing post pandemic is making it worse. They see the value of mindfulness, and want to facilitate social and emotional learning for their students, but lack the tools and support to put it into practice.
We created the Wander Educator Portal to put mindfulness within reach for educators. We Want them to see Wander as the best way to reduce stress and make the learning environment better for everyone. It’s a turn-key tool that they easily integrate into existing programming and that helps them achieve their pedagogical goals.
The selling point: the Wander educator portal helps turn your classroom into a better place to teach and learn.
Educators in Massachusetts have used Wander to help calm and recenter a chaotic classroom.
Studies show that mindfulness is an important life and learning skill for middle school students.
Wander’s activities are specifically designed to be accessible, engaging, and motivating for youth ages 11-13.
The educator portal is designed specifically to make SEL more accessible for busy teachers.
Wander in Action: A Semester Long Study
We conducted three qualitative surveys with teachers in the Brockton Public School system: at the start of the school year, at the end of the first semester, and at the end of the school year.
The surveys measured concern about a series of issues in teachers’ classrooms:
Addressing behavioral challenges
Navigating disruptions & distractions
Dealing with student mental health challenges (stress, anxiety, depression)
Building trust with students
Motivating and maintaining student participation
Dealing with different learning styles
Academic performance
Managing teachers’ own stress and burnout
We also measured confidence in the ability to teach mindfulness.
In the December survey, we added a series of questions about perceived impact of Wander on students’:
Engagement
Focus
Self-Confidence
Emotional Wellbeing
Interpersonal relationships
Our Findings
Wander had a positive impact on Teacher confidence levels over the course of the year. Confidence levels increased after a full year of using Wander. Those who feel “very confident” went from 39% to 58.3%; and those feeling “neutral” dropped from 17.4% to 4%
Educators surveyed felt Wander had a positive impact on disruptions and distractions in the classroom. The number of those feeling very concerned about disruptions/distractions dropped from 30.4% in September to 17.4% in December and 16.7% in May. And concerns about academic performance dropped from 30.4% “very concerned” in December to 8.3% in May; and those not at all concerned raised from 13% in September to 25% in May.
The majority of teachers felt Wander had a positive impact on their students’ emotional wellbeing throughout the school year (around 92%)
Educators surveyed felt Wander had a positive impact on their students engagement. From 39% to 50% feeling very positive from December to May — converting 10% from somewhat to very over the course of the year.
Educators surveyed felt Wander had a positive impact on their students self-confidence. In December the majority (78.2%) felt Wander had a positive impact. By May, those feeling “very positive” increased from 21.7% to 37.5%. And those feeling “no impact” decreased from 21.7% to 4% — the rest becoming “very positive” (somewhat remained around 55%).
Teachers responded well to the routine aspect of using Wander: “Routine is an important part of the in-school experience for middle school students. Starting each class with the Wander program has helped my students gain awareness of their feelings and emotions. As students gained experience, they were better equipped to receive instruction, re-direction, and encouragement. Wander helps students develop strong social and emotional skills improves social interactions and sets the tone for a better learning environment.”
83% of educators were satisfied with the educator portal — up from 72% in December
Wander’s Net Promoter Score is high:
Detractors: 4% (1)
Promoters: 71% (17)
Passives: 25% (6)