GIVING I N A C T I O N mental health
By Kate Harrington
saving yoga services for inmates
Yoga Works A five-year study conducted in North Carolina and completed in 2008 found that inmates who were taught yoga over the study’s course were less likely to be reincarcerated upon release. Of those who attended more than four classes, 8.5 percent were reincarcerated, while 25.2 percent of those who attended fewer than four classes went back to jail during the same period. 14 GivingCityAustin.com
As an attorney and board president of Community Yoga, which takes yoga instruction into jails, Jodi Cole has seen firsthand the impact yoga can have on county inmates. “My maximum security client is in the mental health unit, and there are times when he has missed a dose of medication,” says Cole, “so I think yoga helps him stay calm.” In fact, research shows that yoga can have a positive impact not only on an inmate’s personality and health, but also on recidivism (see “Yoga Works.”) But offering that instruction to inmates— and to other groups
of people who could benefit the most from yoga—almost shut down Community Yoga. The nonprofit was founded to bring the benefits of yoga to communities that might not otherwise have access to the practice. Almost immediately, they found the community clamoring for the classes they offered: the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle, SafePlace, Family Eldercare, the Austin Resource Shelter for the Homeless and the Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic were all among initial clients, and the waitlist grew quickly. But Community Yoga didn’t ask most clients to
pay. At the same time, the organization paid its yoga teachers competitive wages, relying on donations and fundraisers to bring in money. By early 2012, that model was no longer sustainable. The current board retooled the organization, scaling back to focus on the classes at the jail and the classes at organizations that could pay or would be taught by volunteers. Community Yoga is also examining the possibility of partnering with other nonprofits, and is going after grants targeted at the inmate population. “We decided that the inmates are a population that really would benefit the most from receiving yoga,” Cole says of the decision to maintain the jail classes. “We felt that our efforts would also benefit society in that it would reduce recidivism, too. “My job is to humanize inmates to a judge, jury and the state. Sometimes, I have to humanize clients to themselves first. Yoga is a tool that has been useful in this process.” Learn more at Community-Yoga.org
ph o t o g r aph by J A M I E M A LDO N A DO
A nonprofit rethinks its capacity to accomplish its mission.