ARLINGTON, VA (March 1, 2024) – Yoga Alliance, the largest nonprofit association representing the international yoga community, announces an expanded partnership with Awakening Yoga Spaces (AYS) to advance diversity among yoga teachers and practitioners, and to support yoga’s reach into more communities.
AYS is a coalition of yoga and wellness communities committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with the primary focus of making yoga teacher trainings more accessible, specifically for communities who have historically had less access to the practice of yoga. Collaboration with Yoga Alliance began in 2021 when AYS introduced a new teacher training scholarship program, and they are now deepening their investment and partnership for wider and more sustained impacts.
“Through this more comprehensive and strategic approach, we will continue to support yoga in more places, spaces, & communities – taught by teachers with a wider range of lived experience, who have more support to grow and thrive as yoga professionals,” said Kristina Graff, Yoga Alliance Head of Social Impact. “We are honored to partner with Awakening Yoga Spaces, which is using a holistic, yoga-centered approach to foster a broader and more welcoming community for yoga teachers from all walks of life. And we hope that this in turn may inspire more people to practice yoga – laying the groundwork for a more peaceful and compassionate world.
In this expanded collaboration, Yoga Alliance will continue its contribution to AYS teacher training scholarships, while providing additional support through community teaching stipends and professional development tools. Yoga Alliance will provide resources and models from its prior initiatives such as Teaching for Equity, teacher training scholarships, and business development programs – bringing these pieces together to complement the AYS initiative, for a more robust and comprehensive participant experience.
With this broadened investment, Yoga Alliance will assist AYS in providing both new and experienced yoga teacher trainees with:
- Scholarships to begin or advance their training
- Stipends to offer yoga classes in their communities
- Business resources to bolster their professional development
- Mentorship and community to offer holistic support
- Coalition to foster more inclusive and welcoming yoga schools and studios
“By providing greater access to Teacher Trainings for those who have faced barriers, and honoring their voices, experiences, and perspectives as a part of the yoga community at large, we believe we can create a community that is truly inclusive and welcoming to all,” said AYS co-founder Annie Moyer.
AYS is accepting applications for teacher training scholarships until March 15, 2024. To learn more about the program and how to apply, visit awakeningyogaspaces.com.
About Yoga Alliance
Founded in 1999, Yoga Alliance is a member-based, non-profit organization that serves yoga schools and teachers across the globe, providing world-recognized, best-in-class credentials and unifying its members around a shared ethical commitment. Yoga Alliance’s goal is to support and foster the high-quality, safe, accessible, and equitable teaching of yoga. In addition, Yoga Alliance delivers a strong value proposition to its members through community-building initiatives, educational resources, advocacy efforts, and social impact programs. For more information visit ndanpice.com.
About Awakening Yoga Spaces
Awakening Yoga Spaces co-founders Marsha Banks-Harold and Annie Moyer originally united in 2020 during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Determined to identify how yoga studio communities could do better in dismantling the structural racism that has been long overlooked in the wellness industry, AYS’s launched its first initiative – a six-part conversation series examining the historical relationship between yoga practice and social justice activism. Fast forward to today, AYS has expanded into a coalition of yoga and wellness communities across the United States committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the yoga world, and focused on making yoga teacher trainings more accessible.
For more information visit awakeningyogaspaces.com.