Yoga Outreach – Sharing, Relationships & Community
Every year I host Edinburgh Community Yoga and their brilliant weekend of yoga outreach training.
For seven years on the trot I’ve hosted annual fundraisers for Glasgow charities Yogability and Fareshare Glasgow (administered by Move On).
10% of the profit from Merchant City Yoga is earmarked every year to pay for the provision of yoga classes to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access them.
I do all of this because as a Glasgow yoga studio I’m adamant that we have to take our place within our local community. We have to contribute what we can to support the community, foster relationships and nurture it to grow. I’m totally committed to sharing the benefits of yoga with people regardless of their health or ability to pay. I’m convinced that every yoga practice, no matter what it looks like, is an act of service.
When we put in the work to improve our own physical, mental and emotional health we make things better not only for ourselves but for everyone around us too. And, just like the ripples in a pond, that affects the people around them. And then the people around them and so on…
service
/ˈsəːvɪs/
noun: service
1.
the action of helping or doing work for someone.
[Definition from Google Dictionary]
What is Yoga Outreach?
The Yoga Service Council define Yoga Service/Outreach as:
“an intentional sharing of yoga practices that support healing and build resilience for all, regardless of circumstances taught within a context of conscious relationship rooted in self reflection and self inquiry.”
(Yoga Service Council 2018)
Lorraine from Edinburgh Community Yoga (ECY) explains that generally, the term yoga service/outreach is used when discussing yoga programmes that run out with the context of a regular yoga studio or class and that reach populations who may experience challenges in accessing these public and often expensive classes.
Yoga out with regular classes
Examples of the diverse range of programmes attributed to yoga outreach include addiction recovery projects, trauma informed yoga, yoga in prisons, yoga with active and veteran service personnel, older adults, refugee services, workplace wellbeing and public community classes. And this list is far short of being exhaustive!
Yoga Outreach is frustrating
My own experience of finding projects to work with has been frustrating:
Often yoga isn’t understood as an activity that can support and enhance the outcomes of the project/programme so is offered as a leisure class where attendance is voluntary. This means attendance can be sporadic and relies on someone rounding folk up for class;
Organisations who work with these groups of people are often understaffed and time poor. Yoga isn’t high up on their list of priorities;
Sometimes, even those groups who do amazing work with individuals, don’t value what yoga and a specially trained and experienced teacher can bring.
After taking part in a Yoga Outreach class during a recent visit to Vancouver, Canada Lorraine writes:
“Yoga in this setting was a mandatory part of the recovery programme, when you sign in to rehab you agree to attend- however you are able to show up in the room, this makes it feel like the practice of yoga is really valued as an adjunctive therapeutic practice by people working in addiction services, as opposed to a ‘nice activity’. I’d like to see us move towards this model in Scotland.”
Lorraine says:
“Research and yoga do not intersect that well for many reasons. Yoga is difficult to standardise, commitment to interventions is difficult and therefore statistical power (which makes research valid and worth paying attention to) is difficult to achieve. That doesn’t mean we don’t believe there is benefit in the practice.
When someone tells me they can finally feel safe enough to close their eyes after months of practicing yoga that tells me yoga is doing something immeasurable, but that information doesn’t make great shakes in a world that values scientific evidence.”
You can read a full account of her visit HERE. Lorraine was there as part of her seven week WCMT fellowship, supported by the Rank Foundation to visit Canada, the USA and Kenya to learn about sustainability in yoga not for profit and you can check out her other posts HERE.
What makes Yoga Outreach worthwhile?
After a fair few false starts and apparent failures with other projects I was a little less than optimistic when I agreed to meet with a very persuasive lady from an addiction recovery project in Springburn. They’d just moved into new premises so things were even more chaotic than usual. It was coming up to the summer holidays and my experience with recovery projects had been mixed to say the least.
I’m delighted to say they proved me wrong!
We supported them with a weekly yoga class held by a specialised and experienced teacher for an agreed period of time. Our project champion there was exceptional in encouraging and supporting those people attending the project to try out yoga and to keep coming along.
We kept a note of attendance: who was new, who returned and how many staff/volunteers were there every week. We noted informal, verbal feedback (anything more formal and rigorous wasn’t appropriate).
Armed with this information the project then managed to secure funding for the class to continue this year. A brilliant result for the recovery project and one which allows MCY to provide yoga classes for a new organisation.
Yoga Outreach is important work
Despite my frustrations with potential beneficiary organisations and not being able to devote as much time to developing those relationships as I’d like, I do what I can.
One of the things I can do is train great yoga teachers and encourage and support them to explore this work. Hence hosting ECY’s weekend of training Fundamentals of Yoga Outreach every year so that yoga teachers can gain the skills and learn from Laura and Lorraine’s experience.
Meeting people where they are
To quote Lorraine again:
“…I’m reminded of the importance of relationship in being able to offer successful yoga programmes. The ability to go into different environments be it a prison, a hospital or a military base and be comfortable, confident, respectful and assertive enough to hold a professional boundary while meeting people where they are is an essential part of being able to work in outreach settings. I notice here, as I did in Vancouver and as I do at home that there is a commonality amongst the teachers that are drawn to this work in the way that atmosphere is created and community is formed.”
We practice yoga to make a difference. Sharing our yoga practice in a skilful and compassionate way can be our way of being part of the yoga revolution!
You’ll find Lorraine and her wonderful Edinburgh Community Yoga colleague Laura for their Fundamentals of Yoga Outreach training Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 September 2020. There are still spaces to join them and you can book your place HERE
Yogability are a Glasgow charity who provide free yoga classes to children and adults with special needs, and their families and carers.
Fareshare Glasgow (in partnership with Move On Glasgow, a charity working with young people who have been in care and/or affected by homelessness) do amazing work redistributing quality surplus food to groups working with vulnerable people in and around Glasgow and the West of Scotland.
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