Starting a Program like Street Yoga

Continuity and Commitment. We found that many sites have had yoga, but when there was only one teacher, the classes often ended when life events forced that individual to scale back his or her teaching. We take the time to gather and train teachers before committing to a particular site or community group. For most homeless people, yoga is not a high priority. Survival is. For us, it has taken many months simply to build the trust of the youth we teach, and having a broad number of teachers committed has made it possible to provide continual coverage of the classes we have promised to teach.

Acceptance. We also strive to meet the students where they are. This often means setting one person up into a restorative pose while the rest of the class continues with asanas, or allowing people to chat during class to ensure a feeling of ease and safety during yoga practice. Also, for example, we allow people to wear whatever they want, including heavy boots and thick jackets, if that is how they feel most comfortable practicing yoga.

Loving Context. Our classes have ended up being much more than “just yoga.” Yoga is the context for creating a safe, honoring, welcoming space for the youth, a space they too rarely find in their days and nights of struggle. Yoga is the doorway to an amazing world, and we hope to offer them a glimpse at the possibilities that already lie within each one of our students.

Svadhyaya. Early on, we realized that our prejudices would inflict themselves upon our teaching, and we committed ourselves to studying the -isms and prejudices that we subtly carry in our souls. The constant self-study of this practice for we as teachers has been one of the greatest gifts we have encountered in our individual journeys through Street Yoga.

where do you intend to teach? An obvious choice is at a yoga studio, but this is not always the best place. Homeless youth and adults face a daily struggle to find food, shelter, and medical care. They will gather where these services are provided, and it is probably more likely that you will get the interest of the students you seek if you can meet them on friendly ground, for example, at resource centers or shelters where people who are homeless naturally gather.

how many teachers will you have? The more the better. Not only is it difficult to commit oneself to teaching week after week, but with fewer teachers, it is more likely that there will be breaks in the class schedule. This can be very disheartening for a student who discovers yoga and begins to deepen into a practice when classes stop. Likely this person has no access to any other yoga teaching and their personal demands will likely overtake their ability to practice without a teacher and regular class.

An additional consideration is the emotional intensity of teaching people who are without decent housing. Their lives are so often dominated by struggles most safely-housed people never confront, and the human contact is both raw and beautiful. Having folks to share this with is key.

what population do you want to teach? Our classes comprise youth from ages 6-22. Teaching different sub-groups within this span is challenging, as 11 y/ girls living in a shelter have very different needs than 19 y/o men living on the streets. Focus helps the teachers craft an appropriate practice for the given group of students.

Identify a specific location for teaching. This can be a homeless shelter, retirement home, youth resource center, jail, in-patient drug treatment center, outpatient recovery center, foster care training program etc. The possibilities are many, and it's worth the effort to canvas your community to find those locations which best serve the people you want to teach.

If you want to teach at a yoga studio, it is likley that you will need to account for factors not normally encountered during studio hours. For example, homeless people will have shopping carts that need stowing. Most homeless people do not have regular access to reliable transportation. They might not remember it's time for yoga class and show up at the wrong time. Evening classes might not be popular with vulnerable people who don't feel safe venturing too far from safe sites that they trust.

Also, there might be issues that arise during yoga class, students who are high, or even hostile to other students, or students who are on or off psychiatric medication. These and a host of other issues suggest that teaching in a yoga studio would be more challenging than teaching at a trusted community site.

Identify your target population. Do you want to teach homeless youth, children of homeless adults, teens in recovery or any other selection of people who are related by history and circumstance to find themselves without housing or otherwise vulnerable. This is very important because the needs to each group will differ, and members of one community might not feel comfortable with members of another. For example, people in recovery will likely never want to take yoga classes with anyone who might be high or using. These are the people they are trying to avoid so that old tempations can be slowly whittled away.

Class Structure. You need to work out whether the class will be mandatory or voluntary. If you work with an organization serving certain populations, there will be required activities, of which yoga can become one. If yoga is to be entirely voluntary, you will have to do more educating to inform potential students of the benefits of yoga in their daily lives.

You also need to carefully select the time of day and the day of the week. Be sure to coordinate this with other activities that will compete for people's attention. For example, holding class at the same time that free food is offered down the street will likely ensure that no one shows up.

Build a relationship with key staff members at your chosen community site. Staff and executives at organizations that serve homeless people are almost always working very hard. Also, they often work in crisis mode, dealing with emotional, physical, and psychological emergencies. This often leaves little time for wellness programs such as yoga, and little time for endeavors that do not demand immediate attention.

By making staff connections, you can develop advocates within the organization. These people often have years of built up trust with the clients you intend to teach, and will serve as invaluable referrals for potential students. As well, unless your classes are mandatory, students and potential students need to trust you. If you don't have the strong support of staff, you will often be seen as outsiders who cannot be fully trusted.

Finally staff connections can allow you to bring yoga to more students. Some organizations have ‘coupons’ or ‘credits’ that their people can earn, by taking certain positive steps as part of the general service offering. We are looking to have the youth who voluntarily practice with us earn such credits for their efforts. These come from the organization, through us to the youth.

For all these reasons, even if you are choosing to teach at a studio, it is important to involve staff members from local organizations

Meet Real Needs. Yoga in and of itself is not going to solve the most pressing problems faced by people who are homeless. It is not going to get them a place to live, nor a job, nor is it going to beat back the demons that haunt them. Be realistic in what you can offer, and in what you promise to your potential students.

Also, ask the students what they need. Ask the staff at the organization, and focus your teaching on those specifics. For example, we started at Outside In teaching to the theme of Building Core Strength. Over time, we modified that for the winter months, to stess the benefits of yoga for building immunity, staying warm and cleansing the body. For Spring and Summer, we will likely put more emphasis again on physical strength and endurance.

Find Complimentary Programs. We are developing some nutrition classes which we will offer this winter in conjunction with our regular yoga classes. We are also preparing a foot care class. By linking our yoga teaching with general and direct wellness activities, we are hoping for positive synergies which give the youth broader control over their own health.