The Benji Project
Project: Building Youth Resilience Through Mindfulness and Self-Compassion
Request: $15,000
The Benji Project provides accessible, prevention-focused mental health programming for youth ages 9 to 19 and their families across Jefferson County. Its work is grounded in the evidence-based Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens curriculum, delivered through school-based programs, after-school offerings, community classes and seasonal camps.
Approximately 2,800 young people in that age range live in Jefferson County. TBP anticipates directly serving around 550 of them each year.
Prevention is critically important
Adolescence brings enormous emotional, social and developmental change. Young people in Jefferson County navigate feeling overwhelmed, social pressure, isolation, and the sheer difficulty of managing emotions with skills they're still developing. Recent Healthy Youth Survey data found that nearly half of Jefferson County 10th graders reported being unable to control or stop worrying in the prior two weeks.
TBP's response isn't treatment. It's teaching. Young people learn to recognize stress, navigate difficult emotions, respond to difficulty with greater self-compassion, and build resilience over time.
Timing is everything. Adolescence is when people develop their patterns for responding to stress, relationships, setbacks and their own inner experience. Skills learned at 13 don't expire at 19, they become the default a person carries into adulthood.
Here are the problems you can help solve
Access to mental health support in rural Jefferson County is limited by provider shortages, transportation, cost and stigma. Those barriers fall hardest on families with fewer financial resources and those living further out.
So TBP goes to where young people already learn, gather and connect — local schools and trusted community spaces.
TBP has learned that its funding through Salish BH-ASO, the regional Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization, will end as of July 2027. That funding represents approximately 20% of the operating budget for fiscal year 2026–27. Going into the following fiscal year, TBP needs to bolster community support substantially to close that gap.
And demand is growing. This year, the fourth grade teaching team at Salish Coast Elementary approached TBP asking for support in their classrooms. TBP wants to be able to say yes to requests like that, even when school districts have limited ability to match funding as their own budgets shrink.
What your donation makes possible
$10,000 supports school-based programming including instructor time and materials for evidence-based work delivered directly to Jefferson County students. $5,000 supports after-school and community-based programming, including instructor time, materials, outreach and delivery in partnership with trusted community organizations.
TBP will measure results through participant surveys, instructor reflections and feedback from partner educators, aiming for at least 60% of participating youth reporting increased awareness of stress management tools, and at least 80% of responding educators rating the lessons 4 or 5 out of 5 for effectiveness in supporting student wellbeing.
The bottom line
The Benji Project was founded in 2017 by Cynthia Osterman after the loss of her 15-year-old son, Benji. That loss revealed critical gaps in youth mental health resources in Jefferson County, and became the start of a community-wide commitment to helping children and teens build resilience, connection and healthy ways to navigate difficulty.
Nearly a decade later, TBP has grown into a trusted community resource, and is now expanding to reach children at younger ages.
Your donation keeps an instructor in a classroom, and puts tools in a young person's hands that they'll use for the rest of their life.
