Posts from ‘service’
Dr. Gabor Maté, looking reflective (image via jonathandickinson.ca)
Physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté has collaborated with the Kundalini Yoga community to launch Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery in Vancouver, BC. The innovative four-weekend program “utilizes ancient Kundalini Yoga techniques coupled with an advanced nutritional and dietary approach aimed at balancing brain chemistry and glandular function,” according to The Vancouver Observer.
Dr. [Sat Dharam] Kaur, the originator of the program, says, “We are creating a research based program that can be implemented in treatment centres across the country. The Kundalini Yoga practices in the Beyond Addiction program help to nourish one’s relationship with one’s essential spiritual identity and develop inner strength in a supportive group setting so that the compulsion for an external substance or behaviour is relieved.”
A team of researchers, headed by Julia Wilson, will evaluate the effectiveness of the program and publish the results of their study. This will be one of the first research studies evaluating the effectiveness of a Kundalini Yoga based recovery program on substance abuse and addiction. (via The Vancouver Observer) Continue Reading
How can yoga teachers protect their own health and ensure a long, full life of teaching and practice?
Most yoga teachers operate as independent contractors – but are you prepared for the day you chip your tooth? Have to see a chiropractor? Need braces for your child? In Canada, we’re fortunate enough to have a publicly funded health care system, but this coverage doesn’t include many health services. The irony is that while most yoga teachers are promoting active and healthy lifestyles to their students, they’re often at risk of losing their own livelihoods in the event of an illness or injury.
Yumee Chung, an enterprising yoga teacher based in Toronto, decided to do something about this. On her blog, she wrote, “I’ve been in discussions with a number of health insurance providers and I’ve finally negotiated a group health insurance plan I’m happy with. It includes extended health care, dental coverage, life insurance, and short- and long-term disability.”
She’s inviting other yoga teachers in southern Ontario to join her – and encouraging teachers in other cities to band together and create comparable plans. Continue Reading
What does it take to build a successful yoga non-profit organization committed to creating positive change in the lives of youth? Relationships and support, says Laura Sygrove, New Leaf Yoga Foundation‘s Executive Director and co-founder. In this video interview, Laura and I talk about the roots of New Leaf’s work, their Warriors for Peace fundraising campaign, the challenges and rewards of engaged yoga service work, and the importance of supportive networks.
New Leaf is on a mission to bring yoga to youth (between the ages of 12 and 24) who are facing challenges in their lives. Since 2007, volunteer yoga teachers have been going into community facilities and detention centres in Southern Ontario to work with young men and women who are overcoming histories of abuse, neglect, incarceration, gang-involvement, addiction, marginalization and other factors that have led them to be identified as “at risk.” Through yoga and mindfulness meditation, these young people are learning tools to actively change their lives.
Warriors for Peace campaign runs until January 16 and New Leaf is so close to reaching their goal of $30,000. New Leaf has relied on the yoga community for support and funding, and now they’re reaching out to yoga-loving individuals for help. Every dollar matters. Become a Warrior for Peace and donate here.
Stuff, stuff, stuff! Do we really need more stuff? Do we need to give more stuff?
This holiday season, give the gift of yoga by supporting the Acorn Fund. The Toronto-based fund offers annual grants to local organizations who help share yoga with those who would otherwise be unable to access the practice. It was formed with the intention of stimulating the Toronto yoga community’s interest in sharing resources for philanthropic concerns.
The Acorn Fund, which is coordinated by the good people at Yoga Community Toronto, also “places priority on supporting projects that seek to demystify, legitimize, and naturalize yogic practice and thought in the public sphere.” This includes community health, rehabilitation, employment and transition services, and public education, among other services. Past recipients of Acorn Fund grants include the New Leaf Yoga Foundation and the Centre of Gravity Peacemakers.
Donate to the Acorn Fund here.
And do you want to give the gift that keeps giving? Consider using the Acorn Fund as a model for engaged yoga philanthropy in your own community!
Mark Lilly, Street Yoga founder, looking rather Neil Young-esque. (image via streetyoga.org)
Street Yoga founder Mark Lilly was inspired not only by his yoga practice and the changes he saw within himself, but by a line from a Neil Young song: “We were giving, that’s how we kept what we gave away.” To keep what yoga had given him, Mark said he had to give it away as fast and as much as possible – and he chose youth and others struggling with homelessness, poverty, abuse, addiction, trauma and behavioral challenges to be the recipients of his generosity.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Street Yoga has a mission to “give youth and their caregivers the tools to overcome early life trauma, through the sharing of life-building mindfulness and wellness practices grounded in the ancient healing principles of yoga.” With humble beginnings as a grassroots organization run by volunteers, Street Yoga has grown into a full-fledged non-profit with a staff, board, solid infrastructure and ambitious development plan.
In addition to offering services to at-risk youth in the Portland area, Street Yoga offers 16-hour teacher training courses all over North America. These trainings teach “compact, portable mindfulness practices” and are developed for yoga teachers, social workers and school teachers (although no previous yoga teaching experience is necessary).
In 2011, more than 500 people have been trained to teach yoga to youth in social service environments. The next training will happen in Toronto on December 9 – 11. See the Street Yoga schedule for 2012 trainings.
Mark Lilly answered a few questions about Street Yoga, the teacher training, and yoga as activism and community service. Continue Reading
