Sadhana Service Project

Sadhana Community Service Project

We bring trauma-informed, mindfulness-based yoga and meditation to people impacted by trauma, addiction and incarceration. We have active programs running concurrently in the Hudson Valley including prisons, recovery centers, residential centers for young people, centers for men and women on parole and low-income centers for seniors. We are creating programs to train interested teachers, in order to work skillfully with different populations.

We are taking yoga and moving it outside our studio to reach different populations and assist them with their transformation and rehabilitation. Last year we initiated a yoga program for women on parole at the Women’s Center in Poughkeepsie and participated in a volunteer program that taught yoga to young men and women in the Hudson Correctional Facility. 

This year our project has exploded: we now teach yoga and meditation in eight different organizations in the Hudson Valley, and get requests for help every week.   Our fundraising appeal to YOU is to raise money for props for the students and to pay the yoga instructors who teach them.

Sadhana Service Project currently serves:

Columbia County Jail, Hudson

Hudson Correctional Facility, Hudson

Greenport Manor, low-income housing for seniors, Greenport

Twin County Recovery, Hudson

Red Hook Residential, alternative to prison program for young men, Red Hook

Meadowbrook, for women in recovery, Rhinebeck

Project More, women on parole, Poughkeepsie

Transitions, men on parole, Hyde Park

Our project is up and running! We have eight different programs running concurrently in the Hudson Valley, with requests coming in weekly with a need for our service of yoga and meditation.

We will continue to pay yoga teachers $35 per class plus transportation costs for these classes.

We will create training programs for teachers interested in trauma-informed and mindfulness-based yoga and meditation service work.

We will work with organizations to allocate funds from their budgets to sustain the program in their facility.

We will create a book program to send relevant books on transformation, yoga and meditation to men, women and young people in prison and recovery centers.

We will initiate a yoga teacher training program in prison and mandated recovery centers to empower men and women to be able to teach yoga.

We will conduct research and gather statistics to apply for state and federal grants. 

RECOVERY

It is estimated that one in three Americans suffer from some form of substance use disorder. Addiction is a chronic and progressive disease of the brain; characterized by an inability to abstain or control cravings, a failure to recognize problems with behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response.

The accumulated costs to the individual, the family, and the community are staggering and arise as a consequence of many direct and indirect effects, including compromised physical and mental health, increased spread of infectious disease, loss of productivity, reduced quality of life, increased crime and violence, increased motor vehicle crashes, abuse and neglect of children, and health care costs.

BENEFITS OF YOGA FOR RECOVERY

• Improves flexibility, balance and strength

• Increases restful sleep, provides relaxation and increased energy

• Connects the body with the mind and the heart to better manage impulses and cravings

• Regulates stress & increases the capacity for impulse control

• Reconnects the body, mind, and spirit

• Promotes restful sleep and a calm mind

• Re-friends the body

JUSTICE

Throughout the United States, there is a growing recognition of the need for interventions that address the high rates of psychological stress and reduced wellbeing experienced by individuals within the prison system. 

TRAUMA SENSITIVE YOGA PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH AND ADULTS

• Introduce the application of yoga as a lifestyle, on and beyond the mat
• Develop the whole person by increasing self-awareness and self-regulation 
• Build awareness of mental patterns and how those patterns relate to behavior
• Provide practical tools for developing mindful solutions to difficult situations
• Encourage compassion toward oneself and others
• Manage deeply held, unresolved trauma
• Reduce stress, anxiety, and depression 
• Increase performance in cognitive-behavioral tasks
• Increase social emotional learning
• Create community
• Create space for individuals to come back in touch with their bodies, minds, and hearts