Seattle classes:

Carson Home (Pioneer Human Services) is a group home that serves male undocumented youth, between the ages of 12 and 17, who are under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Street Yoga provides one class per week.

Casa de los Amigos (YouthCare) is a shelter for homeless, undocumented Latino youth ages 12-17. The shelter provides meals, educational programming, counseling, and life skills sessions, while staff work to find permanent placement for the youth. Street Yoga provides one weekly class on Monday afternoons.

Oasis is a confidential drop-in and resource center for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) youth ages 14-24 in Pierce County. Street Yoga provides a class twice per month.

Ryther Child Center provides residential treatment for a variety of out-of-home youth. Street Yoga provides three classes at this site; one class for adolescent boys in treatment for chemical dependency on Sunday mornings, and two classes for 6-12 year olds recovering from physical and emotional trauma on Monday afternoons. (Sponsored by the Dickinson Family Foundation)

Spruce Street Secure Crisis Residential Center (Pioneer Human Services) is a freestanding residence located in the Capitol Hill Community of Seattle. This program provides secure, short-term, non-institutional residence and support services for runaway or street youth between the ages of 12 and 17. Spruce Street serves an average of fifty youth per month. The ultimate goal of Spruce Street SCRC is to reunite youth with their parents or primary caregivers when possible, while promoting the emotional and physical well-being of youth residents. This is accomplished through intensive case management, advocacy and family mediation efforts. Street Yoga provides a weekly yoga class on Wednesday evenings. (Sponsored by the Dickinson Family Foundation)

The Service Alternatives, Inc. group home in Lacey serves teen girls through the Children's Administration. The purpose of the program is to stabilize these young women with emotional and behavioral challenges so that they can return to family, or find a permanent family through foster care, adoption, or kinship care. Street Yoga holds one class per week on Saturdays and these young women are adding to their repertoire of skills to manage their stress and emotions.

Our class at Tyee Educational Complex, through a partnership with HealthPoint, serves youth struggling with anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and trauma. Students are referred to the Street Yoga class by the Health Specialist. Classes take place on Thursdays after school.

YouthCare serves homeless youth with services ranging from meals, counseling and emergency shelter to transitional housing and education and employment programs. Street Yoga holds bi-weekly classes with YouthCare.

From the Youth:

Why do you come to Street Yoga?

'To have time to work on myself and feel peaceful and I love it."

"Because I can relax and be myself."

"Because it helps me release stress."

From site Staff:

"I found that after the [Street] yoga session, the therapy session with individual students goes much further. For example, I have a student who has been cutting herself for many years. In the past two years, I have engaged the student through art therapy, group therapy and individual therapy focused on strengths and behavioral changes. In the past three weeks, this student has not cut herself at all. We do our individual therapy session after [Street] Yoga every Wednesday and she is able to achieve a state of relaxation which allows her to increase her capacity for changing these behaviors."

From the Teachers:

"One of the boys came into class with the attitude that he could not do yoga. There were certain poses he didn't want to try and he kept saying he was too fat to do yoga. With the support and encouragement given by myself and his counselor, he not only tried every pose (even crow pose) he left class saying 'I love yoga!'"

"I always do a check-in and check-out to help give structure to the class. At the end of the check-in, I talk about setting an intention. At the end of one class, during the check-out, one of the boys told me that he used the time in the beginning of class to ask for the ability to have a conversation with his mom that wasn't so stressful (i.e., this was his intention). He said that he felt so good at the end of class, that he thought he could have a good conversation with his mom when he was feeling like that."

To learn more about our Seattle programs, please contact Stephanie Toby, our Seattle Director of Operations. She can be reached at stephanie@streetyoga.org.

Namaste .