Mission
Our mission is to bring the therapeutic benefits of yoga to individuals facing illness and hardship; including cancer, mental illness, and incarceration.
We work with local yoga teachers and healthcare workers to provide yoga to people in prisons, hospitals, and mental health centres. Over the past twelve years, we have trained over ten thousand yoga teachers and healthcare workers, awarded more than 300,000 in grants, and distributed more than 20,000 mats to kickstart programmes in communities where there are barriers to access health services.
Strategy
Our strategic plan is ambitious, innovative, and informed by over a decade of work in forty-six U.S. states and nineteen countries. We focus on four key areas:
Education
We provide training to yoga teachers and healthcare workers wishing to offer therapeutic yoga to individuals facing addiction, cancer, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress.
Start-Up Supplies
We send free yoga mats to individuals wishing to lead not-for-profit yoga projects in prisons, hospitals, and community centres.
Direct Services
We provide evidence-based yoga programmes in hospitals, prisons, and community centres.
Research & Advocacy
We work collaboratively with researchers to study the benefits of yoga for individuals experiencing illness and hardship.
Where We Came From
The Give Back Yoga Foundation has a proud history.
In 2007, The Give Back Yoga Foundation was co-founded by renowned yoga teacher Beryl Bender Birch and her student, Rob Schware. Beryl was leading a yoga teacher training, and Rob was a visionary student looking to “give back” after a career in the World Bank. Together, they started Give Back Yoga to bring yoga to individuals who might never otherwise step foot on a yoga mat: people in prisons, hospitals, and marginalized communities. Over the past twelve years, Give Back Yoga has trained over ten thousand yoga teachers and healthcare workers, awarded more than $400,000 (USD) in grants, and offered therapeutic yoga classes to nearly half a million people facing illness and hardship.
In April 2019, the board approved a plan to expand operations to the United Kingdom. The initiative was spearheaded by Chelsea Roff, a staff member who felt strongly that yoga could benefit more people if delivered through a national healthcare system. The organisation was incorporated as a limited company in June 2019, and we received registered charity status in June 2020.
Our strategic plan in the UK is ambitious, innovative, and informed by over a decade of work in forty-six U.S. states and nineteen countries. Our goals are to rollout our existing evidence-based yoga programmes (for addiction, cancer, eating disorders, and trauma) in the NHS; support the development and study of new therapeutic yoga programmes; train at least 5,000 yoga teachers and healthcare workers; kickstart new nonprofit yoga projects in community and healthcare facilities; invest in research; and support the development of health policy across the UK.
But we can’t do it all ourselves. We will work in partnership with existing civic and government organizations across the United Kingdom, as well as clinical commissioning groups and local authorities in the NHS. We will nurture and grow these partnerships for the benefit of the populations we serve. Finally, we will work in collaboration with universities and academic institutions to invest in and disseminate research on the benefits of yoga for the populations we serve.