Service

One of Yoga Mendocino’s intentions was to use yoga-based practices to help make positive changes within the community.

Over the years, we have been able to provide scholarship assistance and community outreach programs through a combination of class income, donations, Sustaining Memberships, grants, and fundraising. It is with the support of our community that were able to continue thriving as a non-profit organization for as long as we did.

Here are some outreach programs we spearheaded in the past:

Manzanita Peer Support Wellness & Care Management Services:

Yoga classes for clients of Manzanita Services, Inc., a community behavioral health community and specialty mental health provider. The class was open to the public for anyone experiencing emotional and behavioral health challenges. 

 “Yoga Mendocino generously sponsors a weekly yoga class at Manzanita Services, a major provider of behavioral and mental health, care management, therapeutic, and recovery services in Mendocino County.  The participants in this weekly Stretch and Relax class often neither have the financial or internal resources available to attend a class at a regular studio. This sponsorship enables these individuals in discovering new ways of perceiving themselves and the world, finding places of sanctuary in their own minds and bodies, and experimenting with coping in healthier ways. Mindfulness and other meditative strategies are playing a larger and larger role in mainstream physical and mental health care all over the world, and Yoga Mendocino is on the cutting edge of this movement – a local asset in linking the array of benefits from the world of yoga to the world of health. The demand, particularly in Mendocino County, for more mental health care services calls for creative and innovative solutions. Yoga and meditation could be important parts of those answers.” 
-Iris Padgett, former therapist for Manzanita Services, Inc.

Juvenile Hall:

The primary function of the Mendocino County Juvenile Hall is to provide for the physical and emotional care of incarcerated youth in Mendocino County. The weekly yoga classes formerly provided by Yoga Mendocino were attended by a rotating population determined by release date. The classes were totally voluntary.  Classes were typically standard beginning level yoga classes with an introduction to yoga philosophy and lifestyle as well. This classes were generously sponsored by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department.

Prenatal and Postpartum Classes:

Yoga Mendocino occasionally offers partnership with Bloom Waterbirth & Wellness Center to provide prenatal and postpartum yoga classes for new moms.

Project Sanctuary:

During the beginning of COVID-19 shut-downs, rates of domestic violence skyrocketed. Yoga Mendocino hosted an online fundraising workshop taught by Maggie Norton to raise extra funds for Project Sanctuary – Ukiah’s domestic violence and sexual assault response and prevention agency.

Scholarship Program:

There are a multitude of benefits and therapeutic advantages to practicing yoga. To remain true to our vision of promoting physical and spiritual well-being within the community Yoga Mendocino supports a scholarship program that allow low-income students and those affected by cancer and mental health challenges to attend classes at the studio for free or at a discounted rate.

Fire Recovery:

Yoga Mendocino received a grant from the Community Foundation to fund classes for victims of the devastating wildfires that have happened in Mendocino County.