Newsletter, Aug 5, 2003
| Our newsletters have been a tool for informing
supporters and volunteers about current and planned projects, and
give a good feel of the lessons we are learning as we teach yoga
to homeless and at risk youth. Please feel free to read our current newsletter (March, 2007),
or a past issue by clicking on one of the following links.
Thanks. Past Newsletters |
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| August 27,
2006 June 15, 2006 May 17, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 Dec 22, 2005 Oct 27, 2005 Sept 22, 2005 July 22, 2005 |
Apr 22, 2005
Feb 5, 2005 Oct 29, 2004 May 14, 2004 Mar 8, 2004 Feb 7, 2004 Jan 2, 2004 Sept 12, 2003 |
Aug 5, 2003
July 22, 2003 June 27, 2003 June 22, 2003 May 30, 2003 May 16, 2003 May 9, 2003 May 2, 2003 |
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We've started up our teaching again at Outside In, and already we are learning. Despite some faulty marketing and communication on my part --which kept attendance at the first Sunday class to zero-- the Thursday class has planted some good seeds. While our theme for these classes is Building Core Strength i think we could aptly subtitle it Finding Stillness Inside Chaos .
Liz sent the teachers a note earlier this week about her first day teaching at Outside In which i think speaks to this quite eloquently. She wrote: ‘At first it was a little distracting in the day room but Larry and I jumped right in and pulled it through. About 1/2 way through, the whole room seemed to quiet down and we had many interested looking onlookers. There was one young man who was acting out a bit but we gracefully focused our attentions at the participants of the class and he seemed to fade out of the picture. There were smiling relaxed faces and the students as well as others in the room said they were looking forward to seeing us next time. As a teacher, I felt it went really well and I felt great about the whole thing.’
We had discussed the pros and cons of teaching in such a busy space as opposed to a quieter room downstairs, but it seems for now at least, there is much more to offer by finding Stillness Inside the Chaos.
I have been thinking a lot over the last few months how we can track the progress of students participating in StreetYoga. I aim for this for a number of reasons: one, if we can assess our effectiveness, we can create better yoga classes for different clientele. Two, By working with the students to measure progress, we can give them yet more tools to understand themselves.
We had talked about having journals for each of the kids, or 4x6 index cards that they could fill out before and after class. We had discussed having them note concrete expressions of their relationship and progress with yoga: for example, one youth might want to note that she feels less depressed since starting yoga; another that he has fewer outbursts of aggression in the days following a yoga class. The idea is that they would come up with the metrics by which they can watch themselves grow with yoga
What i'm thinking now is this: the teachers would identify students who were starting to show some consistency and dedication --perhaps by simply coming to three classes in a month. We would then ask them if they would be willing to participate in an effort to study the effectiveness of our yoga teaching. We would give them a set of 3x5 or 4x6 index cards (one color per youth) which were joined together by a metal ring, so that they could carry it with them. We would ask simply, that before and after class, or anytime during the week, when they thought of something that yoga had given them, or that they wanted from the class or whatever, that they would write it on one of the cards. The next time they come to class, they would simply detach the card from the ring and give it to us. We can organize the cards by color and date and begin to watch the progress of our works.
This should get us feedback without making it coercive, and should allow them to think about yoga throughout the week and in whatever private space they find.
I've been mulling this for months, and this is the best idea i've come up with yet. (As you know, i'm making this up as we go along.) I am wide open to any other thoughts, please, from any of the volunteers or friends of StreetYoga.
There was an article on the front page of the Oregonian's Living section today (August 5, 2003), with a big picture of Matt leading a group of youth in asanas. I hope the link will stay valid, but as of now, you can read the story here .
A couple of recently mentioned opportunities are taking shape. The challenging part is that we will be dealing with markedly different groups of students, and i encourage us to think through the best way to teach each to their particular needs and settings.
I met with Sarah D. Monday at White Shield, and we discussed our teaching yoga there this fall.
The students will be a group of girls from ages 11 to 17 who are moving through the State's foster care system. Some of them are between placements; some are new to the system waiting to move to their first foster care home; some are out of their natural homes because they or their parents cannot handle the relationship, and they are in limbo to see what will happen next to them.
The girls live in a dormitory style building, two to a room, for up to eight weeks, occasionally longer. Upwards of 75% of them have been sexually abused, many of them are overweight, most of them are emotionally imbalanced --as would i be in such a situation, i am sure!
The challenges that i see include:
Short duration. The girls are only at White Shield for two months, and while they would be required to take the yoga class, the turnover would be very high
Emotional Skills. Most of the girls are struggling with low self-esteem and histories of physical and mental violence.
Social Skills. The social attitudes of the girls range from extremely passive to verbally abusive and occasionally, physically violent. Sarah did not express any concern for our safety, nor did i feel any while i was there, but we do need to see this coming
These present opportunities for us to structure a class that would be beneficial even for as short a time as six to eight weeks. We need as well to offer a yoga practice that will simultaneously lift the spirits of the depressed and low energy girls, while providing calming guidance to the highly strung, more aggressive girls. We need to offer a class that will work for girls, some of whom have very little physical strength or endurance, and most of whom have struggles with histories of physical trauma and abuse
I certainly don't have all the answers. I pose these challenges to the group so that we can put our minds and hearts together to create a yoga teaching practice for the girls at White Shield and eventually share our learning with others who seek to help through yoga.
Darcy Lyon is putting together the final scheduling tasks to begin teaching at Transition Projects Women's Shelter starting in September. You can link to her notes here on the subject, and send us email if you are interested in volunteering to teach at TP.
I am ultimately interested in expanding StreetYoga into working with at-risk families and youth, perhaps at such places as the Parry Center here in Portland, which was described on the web as such: “Parry Center for Children's aids children with no place to go . It provides a comprehensive system of care to emotionally and psychologically at-risk children ages 6 to 14 and their families. Services include psychiatric residential and day treatment, therapy, foster care, alternative education/school-based programs for outpatient therapy, assessment, evaluation, stabilization treatment, case management, and educational support services.”
If anyone has any experience in a setting like this, i would love to hear from you. I want to focus on the commitments we are making right now at Outside In, White Shield and Transition Projects, but this is an avenue i would be interested in exploring hopefully next year....
As we deepen our work with diverse groups of clients/students, i know all the teachers would be very glad for any expertise from other supporters of StreetYoga. If any of you have direct experience with the foster care system, with women in shelters, with homeless youth, anything that you think might help us better our teaching, please drop us a note. As always, you can reach me by email here anytime.
Namaste,
mark
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