Our 10th anniversary fundraiser is also underway!

Yoga For All Day is free, and it always will be; it’s our joy to serve the community in this way. But putting it on doesn't come without cost, and the celebration is just one part of a bigger picture: a decade of showing up for people the wellness industry has historically left behind.

Ten years ago, Yoga For All Movement didn't have an office, a budget, or a single paid staff member. It had yoga teachers devoted to sevā (selfless service in Sanskrit); knocking on the doors of shelters, recovery centers, and community organizations across Santa Cruz County; offering their time and their teaching for free, simply because they believed people who had been shut out of the wellness industry deserved access to it too.

That grassroots spirit never left, but it has grown. What started as a handful of volunteer teachers is now a network of more than 50 trauma-informed teachers, trained through YFAM's own program and supported through free monthly trainings that keep them resourced, connected, and equipped for the populations they serve. Only in the past couple of years have we been able to compensate our teachers at all; compensation remains modest, and funding is never guaranteed year to year.

In a moment when federal and state funding for nonprofits and social services is increasingly uncertain, programs like ours — offering something as seemingly "non-essential" as yoga and mindfulness — are often the first to be cut, even as research continues to show real impact: studies of trauma-informed yoga in correctional settings have linked participation to reduced psychological distress and lower rates of recidivism.

Ten years in, we're still standing on the same foundation we started with: teachers who show up, again and again, for people the rest of the world often overlooks. YFAM now trains and supports a network of more than 50 trauma-informed teachers, many of whom found their way to us with no prior connection to this work, just a willingness to show up. We offer free monthly trainings to keep every teacher resourced and supported, because the people delivering this care deserve care too.