Wellness Equity
Focused on
Stay Engaged is a nonprofit organization with a mission to increase wellness equity in the yoga community and to partner with community health organizations to provide yoga teacher training programs for marginalized communities. We put our mission into action in San Francisco by offering trainings and workshops for yogis and yoga teachers so they can build skills that support inclusion and access in our shared yoga spaces.
Our Story
I founded Stay Engaged Yoga in 2016 while teaching Mom and Baby Yoga for Homeless Prenatal Program's (HPP) clients. It was clear to me that yoga classes taught by someone who comes from homelessness would better serve the needs of the students and the challenges they face.
In partnership with HPP, Stay Engaged raised funds for a 200-hour, Yoga Alliance-registered Yoga Teacher Training. At the beginning of 2019, the Stay Engaged Yoga faculty and I graduated nine extraordinary women from the program! All of the women were either former clients of HPP or staff there. It was a year of deep learning for myself and community building for us all.
The questions that arose as we created a vision for the future were: how do we make yoga accessible for Every Body and not just something done primarily in yoga studios? How do we bring yoga into our communities and make it inclusive? In response, many of the graduates are now teaching yoga in their communities and/or integrating it into their work at HPP. (Check out their photos below!!!)
In the spring of 2019, Stay Engaged began a second yoga teacher training program for the Community Heath Worker (CHW) program at HPP. Our objective is to provide yoga tools for the CHW's, who were former clients at HPP, to work towards HPP's mission to eradicate childhood poverty.
In spring of 2020, Stay Engaged will launch a new yoga teacher training with a mission to increase yoga offerings in community health settings and to promote wellness equity. If you are interested in being a part of this training or volunteering to support it please contact me at gabby@stayengagedyoga.com .
We are currently fundraising to support the cost of the training and to create mini grants for graduates to teach in their communities. Your contribution will pay for the cost of the training which includes props, books and studio rental.
Founder, Gabby Yates
