Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Our commitments to anti-racism and equity

June 22, 2020

Yoginos: Yoga for Youth is a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE). Currently, we have one full-time person and 15 part-time staff who are trainers, teachers, curriculum writers, and administrators (including Yoga & Mindfulness with Randi Jo); we grew 66% in 2020. Our national team is 25% BIPOC, and we are committed to expansion. We also represent an age-range spanning 30 years and live in 5 states. As a member of the Yoginos Yoga for Youth Leadership team, we are committed to the following action steps:

• acknowledging that our implicit and explicit biases, privilege, and other societal factors have resulted in people who identify as BIPOC feeling not welcomed, seen, or heard by our organization and its associated activities. For these inactions, we accept full responsibility and sincerely apologize;

• investigating our “white savior” tendencies;

• intentionally listening, learning, and having those difficult conversations focusing on the systemic effects of White Privilege and its ongoing burden toward equity in society for BIPOC;

• acknowledging that we participate in educational systems, the health and wellness industry, and in the larger US yoga communities. In many ways, these systems and institutions have centered whiteness and benefitted from systemic racism;

• providing scholarships for BIPOC to create equitable training opportunities;

• committing to the development of meaningful ongoing relationships with organizations, leaders, and trainers to ensure that moving forward, we provide learning opportunities that are antiracist in opportunity, equity, language, and perceived bias;

• listening and learning about systemic racism and ways to teach antiracism and prejudice through the expanded curriculum for teachers and facilitators to use in classrooms, studios, and other locations, and offer strategies to support BIPOC students;

• reviewing all classes, trainings, and communications for implicit and explicit bias;

• investigating wholeheartedly both our use and general use of White Privilege to benefit social or economically oppressed groups.

More about Yogiños: Yoga for Youth®:

Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® is a research-based, trilingual, trauma-informed mindfulness and yoga program designed to empower all people to feel, connect to themselves and others, and act to heal with loving kindness and compassion. In sharing our OHMazing® mission—feel, connect, act to heal—we teach and support social justice, inclusion, and equity on and off the yoga mat.

We train individuals, entire faculties, and organizations to integrate and enact mindfulness—clear seeing of and healthy responses to reality—into their daily lives and community interactions. In creating our comprehensive methodology, we source research-based mindfulness practices, social emotional learning, and many yoga and movement modalities, including Patanjali’s 8 limbs of yoga. This multifaceted approach includes practicing poses, breathing, concentration, and ultimately cultivating kind connections to yourself, others and the universe on and off the yoga mat.

We offer scholarships to our trainings and workshops for BIPOC. For more information, please check out our website here or email us at info@yoginos.com