The Art of Yoga Project, beneficiary of funds from the Vibhasana Yoga Conference, has been empowering Bay Area at-risk teen girls for 9 years with a wholly unique program integrating yoga and creative arts. According to Lisa Pedersen, executive director of The Art of Yoga Project (AYP), “The cornerstone of AYP is a year-round comprehensive Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum (YCAC) offered in partnership with the juvenile facilities. The YCAC is an integral part of the girls’ rehabilitation and a mandatory program offered during school hours (sometimes up to three days a week). The girls receive school credit for their participation. This curriculum has been referred to as the “missing link” in a girl’s rehabilitation by those working within the juvenile justice system.” AYP has a “track record of successful program delivery [and] strong outcomes for the girls” evidenced in YogaWoman, a film currently being screened all over the Bay Area and which features a former AYP student, Sayle, who demonstrates how what she learned in AYP empowered her to create a positive future for herself.
A typical class begins with a “rigorous strengthening yoga practice and continues with a creative art activity. Throughout the class, trained facilitators lead discussions on themes such as non-violence, tolerance, sexual ethics and integrity. The practice of yoga grounds and centers the girls and allows them to connect with the best parts of themselves. In the creative arts project which follows, the girls learn to write, paint, or draw about their feelings instead of acting out with high-risk behaviors. The art thus provides a vehicle for expression and a context for processing thoughts and emotions, all in the company of peers, teachers, and support staff. Together, the marriage of yoga and creative arts works to create a safe space where trust can be developed and authentic sharing becomes possible.”
Serving 500 girls age 12-18 each year in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties through the juvenile justice system, “The Art of Yoga Project is the only yoga-based rehabilitation program in the state of California and, to the best of our knowledge, in the nation to deliver gender-specific services to incarcerated teen girls,” says Pedersen. Among the factors making TAYP unique is the focus not only on asana, or yoga poses and fitness, but on the Eight Limbs of yoga, including basic concepts of non-violence and truth as well as cultivating qualities like focus and concentration.
Currently about 40 yoga teachers and artists/art therapists teach the 11 classes held year round at the Program’s 5 locations throughout the Bay Area. Teachers have unique backgrounds, including trauma-informed training. “We typically recruit in the Spring in conjunction with our own The Art of Yoga Project Training Using Yoga and Art to Support and Empower At-Risk Teen Girls,” reports Pedersen. To support The Art of Yoga Project this month, register for the Vibhasana Yoga Conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center on November 5-6. Teachers from the Bay Area and across the United States will be teaching at this first ever event named for the “inner radiance” that AYP helps girls to feel and yoga teaches is available to each and every person, all the time.
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