The Art of Yoga Project teaches the Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum at several sites in northern California, and has affiliate relationships with other organizations across the country that also implement the Curriculum.
The San Mateo County Juvenile Correctional Facility in northern California is utilizing the Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum as part of the school program at the Margaret J. Kemp Camp for Girls, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2006. This innovative facility rehabilitates girls with significant substance abuse problems, self-destructive behaviors, mental health issues, and negative peer relationships including gang involvement. Art of Yoga teachers are there four days a week, offering classes for which the girls get school credit. Founder Mary Lynn Fitton is the lead teacher at this site.
As of fall 2008, The Art of Yoga Project is extending its services to the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center. Thanks to City Youth Now and the welcoming staff of the JJC, The Art of Yoga Project will continue to teach the weekly yoga classes it began this spring and, in October, will begin guiding the girls through the Eight Limbs of yoga with our Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum. We look forward to an enriching future together.
Aftercare: The Art of Yoga Project is working hard to keep the girls committed to a life-long yoga and meditation practice after they leave their incarcerated settings. The two transitional living centers below are home both to girls who leave the Margaret J. Kemp Camp and also who have been in the foster care system. We bring our services to girls as reinforcement of positive life choices and also as prevention for those without histories of crime.
Tracey’s Place of Hope, San Mateo, California — a weekly yoga, meditation and writing class
East Palo Alto Teen Home, East Palo Alto, California — a weekly yoga, meditation and writing class
Youth and Family Enrichment Services, Redwood City, California — San Mateo Probation Services asked us to start out their weekly team meetings (in which girls meet with their mental health clinicians) with a yoga and meditation practice. According to one therapist, the yoga seems to bring the girls closer to their feelings and helps them to be more articulate in sessions.
The Take it Home Program: Our goal is that each girl leaves her incarcerated setting with a yoga bag that contains any art projects she made while part of our program, a new yoga mat, a Yoga for Teens Card Deck with asanas (yoga postures), a journal to support her writing, and a list of local studios offering free or scholarship classes so that she can continue her practice.