Street Yoga Teacher Training

Click here for the online application.

Upcoming 

Next: Washington, D.C

When:  July 31-Aug 2, 2009

Where: Yoga District

              1830 1st St. NW
              Washington, DC 20001
              202.265.YOGA

Hours: Friday 5-8:30pm, Sat: 10:15am-6:15pm and Sun: 12:15-4:45pm

Cost: $275

Note: This training is full. Please email adrienne@streetyoga.org to request a spot on the waiting list.

Future Trainings: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 (You can fill out the application below and select any of these locations.)  

Overview 

This training will focus on teaching the skills needed to serve at-risk youth with yoga, meditation and other mindfulness practices.

The youth we serve at Street Yoga, whose lives inform this training, include youth who:

• live on the streets, are otherwise homeless, or are transitioning off the streets
• have been involved in the foster care system,
• come from homeless families
• have been physically, sexually and emotionally abused,
• are living in detention
• are in alcohol & drug rehab
• identify as a sexual or gender minority.

Intended Audience

This training is geared towards two primary groups of people:

• Social Workers who wish to learn how better to serve the youth in their care
• Yoga Teachers who wish to expand their ability to be of service through yoga.

The training also includes self-inquiry, communication and mindfulness skills that are useful for everyone.

New in 2009!

We now offer 14 hours of continuing education credits for Social Workers (through the NASW) and for Yoga Teachers (through Yoga Alliance).

We are also spending more time in the training looking at the interplay between yoga and trauma, and how yoga and other mindfulness practices can help the youth heal from their own traumas.

Learning Objectives

After this training, participants will be able to:

• explain why they want to be of service teaching yoga
• teach a yoga offering to at-risk youth using appropriate language, asanas, and pacing
• articulate various causes and challenges of youth homelessness
• describe the continuum of homelessness
• identify potential boundary issues with clients and describe appropriate responses
• identify the importance of having a community of support for expanding into this work
• create a youth yoga program in collaboration with local social service providers. 

All participants will receive a 64 page manual that supports these objectives, and provides background material for the training.

Yoga for Homeless and At-Risk Youth

Mark Lilly & Katie Arrants, with Lauren Turley

Youth who are homeless or in transitional living situations spend much of their time and energy devising strategies for survival on the streets. This leaves precious little time for rest or personal reflection. Street Yoga offers these youth accessible, non-threatening environments in which to take off their backpacks and to experience strength and stillness in both body and mind.

Street Yoga highly values direct, compassionate action. In this training, you will receive practical, real world knowledge and techniques that will assist you in teaching at-risk youth. You will also be encouraged to dig into your personal experience in order to draw out your own courage and compassion as a teacher.

Street Yoga does not prescribe a strict methodology for bringing yoga to youth. Instead, we will cover the basic techniques we have found most useful and will present a brief sketch of the challenges faced by these young people. You can expect to learn:

• Population characteristics and backgrounds
• Communication techniques, including conflict prevention and de-escalation
• Useful yoga postures and sequences, including ideas for special populations
• Common challenges to creating and maintaining a yoga program for youth
• How to work effectively with organizations and use resources efficiently

This training is open to individuals of all levels and backgrounds. Whether you have been teaching for years or are just beginning to share mindfulness practices with others, we simply ask you to begin where you are and share what you know.

As we noted in a recent email to one participant:

"What we do teach is how you can teach from what you do know, how you can take your yoga experience, your life skills, your passion to serve young people and weave that together into a practice that will bring the amazing benefits of yoga to the people you teach. One of the things we do is work on getting ourselves to see yoga not as 90 minutes on the mat in a studio, but so much more: it could be five minutes in a hallway with one kid, helping her breathe and calm down before she meets a probation officer. it could be working with 8 young people at a shelter and simply doing warrior pose, downward dog, some stretches, some breathing and a long savasana. could be working with staff to help them ground and center in their own breathing. there are so many ways we use yoga in our own lives without realizing it, and a big part of the training is to help you tease out all those glories and find ways to share them with others."

Intention

Going into the training, we see three goals, for which we set our intention:

• That you will develop your confidence and skills to teach homeless youth, and youth at-risk of homelessness.
• That you will better understand the connections between youth homelessness, and foster care, a history of childhood abuse, family rejection and poverty.
• That you will feel inspired to volunteer to teach yoga to homeless youth in Portland, or to create a program of your own in your part of the world.

Trainers

The Portland training will be led by Katie Arrants, Street Yoga Program Coordinator, and the Philadelphia training by Mark Lilly, Director and Founder of Street Yoga. Lauren Turley will be co-teaching in Portland, and has many years experience with Street Yoga and in diverse schools across the U.S. Mark and Katie have over a decade of experience teaching yoga. Both have received training in a wide variety of mindfulness disciplines, including yoga, meditation, and "non violent communication." They have worked intensively with homeless and at-risk youth and share the common belief that sharing yoga with marginalized populations is a key step in the journey toward a more peaceful, egalitarian society.

 

Still interested. Please fill out our online application:

Click here for the online application. 

 

Please click here to pay by PayPal:

Please note that this training fills quickly. A deposit of $100 is required to reserve your spot.  Your spot is not secured, until the deposit is received.

 

Refund Policy:
The deposit is non-refundable after 24 hours of your payment. Thanks very much. 

 

Please either pay via PayPal or mail a check to the address below:

Mail deposits to:
Street Yoga
833 SE Main St, Box 226
Portland, OR 97214

 

Need More Information?

If you have any questions, just click to drop us a line.

Namaste.