Who We Serve

The Youth

The program's target population is young people from 6 to 16 who have been sexually and physically abused. Current treatment programs for such youngsters often do not take into account the strong connection between body and mind. Survivors of abuse often hold physical markers of trauma in their bodies: tight, tense musculature; excess body weight; sexual dysfunction; guarded posture; hyperactivity; and chronic localized pain. These all reinforce feelings of shame, fear, low self-esteem and despair, and make succeeding in school, as in life, greatly more difficult.

In our work providing high quality yoga, meditation and self-care instruction to homeless, abused and at-risk youth, we see scores of young people who suffer from obesity, live with depressed mental and physical health, struggle with addictions and endure low-grade chronic conditions that make not only practicing yoga, but managing basic life tasks, quite difficult. Many of these youth have been sexually and physically abused. This grant will be used to facilitate our work helping these young people recover from the ravages of abuse, and diminish or eliminate their risk of ever becoming homeless.