Teachers

As a yogaHOPE instructor you will be joining a community of volunteers who share a common mission of offering yoga instruction to disempowered women in life transition. – the incarcerated, those in drug and alcohol treatment, those living on the streets, battered women, and women transitioning from hospital treatment for disordered eating issues. The practice of yoga has been shown to produce positive motivational change by helping women regain their vital center of energy, satisfaction and stability. It also teaches mindfulness, impulse control, interpersonal relationship skills, discernment in decision-making, patience, and acceptance of self and of the surrounding world. The practice of yoga can help reduce low self-esteem and poor body image, and greatly improves a woman's sense of personal empowerment.

Every volunteer is required to fill out a volunteer application and attend the first available yogaHOPE volunteer orientation meeting. Though you are required to attend this meeting, you may be able to get involved as an assistant in the meantime. This is a good opportunity to observe the classes and see first hand some of the interesting and often challenging issues that you may be faced with. We will discuss this with you further at the orientation meeting.

yogaHOPE is an outreach program, which means that we conduct classes in the residential facilities of these populations. This often presents us with some unconventional settings and circumstances but these women would not otherwise have the opportunity to make this practice a part of their lives. Don’t worry if you don’t have a car, the facilities we work with may be near a T stop or you can easily find a ride with another teacher.

Two additional aspects of our program are our Certificate Program and our Teacher Training Scholarship Program. In brief, these programs give the women an opportunity to work towards achievement recognition (the Certificate Program) and be awarded a scholarship to a yoga teacher training and certification program (the Scholarship Program). This will then enable the graduates to become employees in the yogaHOPE community.