Youth Yoga Dharma :: What we Do

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"Youth Yoga Dharma offers yoga & meditation classes to youth, teachers, staff, & parents on site for a variety of organizations. We have worked with more than 30 organizations."

Below is information regarding how we came into being, what inspires us, and how we hope to be of service. Would you like us to teach at your organization?

OUR MISSION:

To offer the skills of Meditation and Yoga to Youth in a variety of environments, emphasizing disadvantaged situations.

Youth Yoga Dharma embraces diversity in our community. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to fully participate in our programs to the best of their ability. We do not tolerate discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, ethnicity or physical ability.

OUR HISTORY:

The inspiration to start Youth Yoga Dharma came out of the experience of teaching yoga in both public and private junior and senior high schools in San Francisco. Repeatedly Cator experienced a lot of enthusiasm for yoga amongst students in public school, but lack of funding meant classes often had to be cancelled. In private schools, funding was never an issue. Clearly money did not have to be a problem. Thus came the intention to develop a fund to make classes available in a variety of environments. Cator has also offered a yoga class for emotionally challenged youth through the Edgewood Center for close to 3 years. This class has proven to be highly successful. The students in the class respond with enthusiasm to yoga, and experience a growth in their self-esteem and confidence. From these experiences the idea for Youth Yoga Dharma was born.

PROGRAMS WE OFFER:

Youth Classes

YYD programs respond to the environment in which they are being offered. We develop our programs collaboratively with the organization we are working with. All of our programs are offered on site at youth organizations to decrease barriers to participation. Our programs are always free to participants. Some of our standard programs are:

Yoga classes for youth offered on site at your facility. Classes can be during the school day, or after school. Classes run from 45 minutes to 90 minutes or more depending on your needs and curriculum, with the average class lasting 1 hour. Classes usually satisfy California state physical education requirements for PE credit eligibility.
Mindfulness meditation with movement. This program offers mindfulness based stress reduction skills to youth through periods of sitting meditation and discussion or council practice. Movement and games are incorporated as appropriate to age group and setting.

Adult Classes

Stress reduction and yoga for the staff of youth organizations. YYD is committed to supporting the staff of organizations that serve youth?administrators, teachers, counselors, and support staff. Our teachers are trained to work with adults as well as youth. We offer on site yoga classes, mindfulness-based stress reduction, council practice, and programs which integrate these components in response to the needs of your organization. We are available for workshops, in service trainings, individual consultation, or on-going support.
Mindfulness Training for Educators and Staff of Youth Organizations.
As the recognition of the benefits of bringing Mindfulness into education increases, we have more and more requests to train educators in sharing this skill with young people. We are happy to work with your organization in the form of in-service workshops and on-going training to support your efforts to improve the learning environment for youth, and expand your range of teaching skills. We have recently developed a program called, “10 Tools for Sharing Mindfulness with Youth”.
Parent Wellness. In collaboration with Florence Crittendon Services job training program, YYD has developed a program incorporating Mindfulness, Yoga, and the native American practice of Council style discussion to give tools for stress reduction and improving overall well-being for parents. This program is based on Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction as developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. Of the Worcester Medical Center in Massachusetts. This program has proven very popular, and we are currently expanding our site offerings.