Volunteer yoga instructors are being sought for a program aimed at helping teenage girls who are struggling to overcome challenges with substance use.
The program is part of a two-year pilot project run by Yoga Outreach, funded by the Department of Justice Canada, to evaluate the benefits of adding “trauma-informed yoga” as an intervention.
The project is to evaluate the impact on such things as self-regulation and impulse control for justice-involved youth within a drug-treatment program. As well, the pilot is to provide training to support staff within facilities receiving TIY programming, and evaluate the effects of yoga-based tools within their work with youth and for their own self-care.
Volunteers are being recruited to provide weekly trauma-informed yoga classes.
According to a news release, the volunteers will be required to complete the Yoga Outreach Core Training TM, an 18-hour course that “empowers qualified yoga teachers with the skills to build trauma-informed yoga classes for individuals facing multiple barriers, including domestic violence, PTSD, addictions, incarceration and mental illness.”
“This project is a huge step towards our goal of removing the barriers of access to yoga and to support our most vulnerable community members in navigating, what are often, very complex lives,” Delanie Dyck, Yoga Outreach executive director, said in the release.
The next training program is to be offered Dec. 8-10 at Healing Movements Yoga Centre, 13042 84 Ave. Cost is $360 ($310 before Nov. 17); proceeds support providing trauma-informed yoga within mental-health facilities, addiction-recovery centres, prisons and other social-service agencies in B.C. Scholarships are available.
To apply, or for more information, email delanie@yogaoutreach.com, call 604-385-3891 or visit www.yogaoutreach.com