Everyone deserves access to yoga

This is our core belief and driving motivation at Yoga Alliance. We know yoga is a powerful tool for social impact and can play a vital role in supporting everyone’s right to a healthy and fulfilling life.

Yoga for Social Impact

Social impact is somewhat of a buzzword, a phrase frequently used by businesses, organizations, and brands. But understanding a company’s commitment to driving positive change first requires a clear definition of what the term means within their overall mission.

So, what exactly do we mean when we say Yoga Alliance advocates for yoga for social impact? In this video, our Head of Social Impact, Kristina Graff, discusses why and how we act on this comment and how the transformative power of yoga can be used as a catalyst for positive change in individuals, communities, and across generations.

Our Key Focus Areas

Yoga for Community Care

Yoga Alliance offers financial support, professional development opportunities, and community connections for yoga teachers who work in low-resource environments. In times of crisis, we help sustain access to yoga as a critical resource.

Yoga for Resiliency

Through strategic partnerships with humanitarian aid groups and yoga teachers in the refugee community, we facilitate expanded access to yoga and its healing powers for those who have experienced traumatic crises.

A Lifelong Yoga Practice

Yoga Alliance is collaborating with educators and legislators on advocacy, grassroots initiatives, and system changes to offer yoga in all schools—so that students everywhere have yoga as a resource for physical and emotional well-being.

Amplifying the Power of Yoga

We’ve developed innovative, science-based tools to measure yoga’s impact on whole person health. By combining the proven efficacy of yoga with targeted advocacy efforts, yoga is positioned as an essential service and a high-value investment—in social services, health care, and beyond.

Introducing the #AllforYoga Campaign

We’re fortunate to hear stories that prove the power of yoga every day, and we’re excited to share them with you in our new storytelling campaign. Throughout the year, we are spotlighting real-life stories from yoga change-makers, detailing how their teaching and practice have directly benefited their personal lives, those they care for, and the communities they serve.

Click on the stories below to read more.

World Refugee Day and the Power of Yoga

Fakhria faced persecution and weathered threats against everyone at her studio—including threats against her colleagues, her students, and herself. As a result, she and her colleague Masouma both fled Afghanistan with their families in 2021 seeking safety and freedom, and nearly two years later they are still awaiting asylum.

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An Interview with Sandy Boutros

Sandy Boutros is a yoga teacher and practitioner based in Beirut, Lebanon, who started her yoga journey in 2012. After developing a keen interest in meditation, she left her advertising job and traveled to Bihar School of Yoga in India to take a four-month course in Advanced Yogic Studies.

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Roxanne Sanchez

Roxanne Sanchez was born and raised in New Mexico and currently remains a native resident, with her roots very grounded and deeply invested into these sacred lands and the people. Her native name is Toh’tcho-OhLonē, Baby Hummingbird, Sister of WolfClan, Guardian of the North and Wisdom Keeper of the Earth.

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Oboma Alfred Olaa

Oboma Alfred Olaa is a native of South Sudan, living in Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp since 2016. He was introduced to yoga in 2019 through a friend who did teacher training with the African Yoga Project in Nairobi. He began attending yoga classes and a year later attended the same Africa Yoga Project teacher training program.

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Sowmya Ayyar

Sowmya Ayyar is the Founder-Director of Prafull Oorja Charitable Foundation, a Bangalore-based non-governmental organization (NGO), which trains yoga therapists to implement sustainable programs with communities in vulnerable conditions. Prafull Oorja has impacted hundreds of yoga teachers, special educators, and thousands of beneficiaries.

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Brirkellia Álvarez

Brirkellia Álvarez is a lawyer and Hatha Vinyasa Yoga teacher (RYT 200). Based in Caracas, Venezuela, she is the founder of "Todos En Yoga", an initiative to develop inclusive programs to spread the practice of yoga in sectors with low purchasing power. Her vision is to create a movement focused on yoga and meditation as an instrument of social transformation, to generate resilient communities and violence-free environments.

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Yoga Alliance is a nonprofit 501(c)(6). Yoga Alliance Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3). This website refers to the two organizations as "Yoga Alliance." Copyright 2024 Yoga Alliance. Yoga Alliance, the Yoga Alliance logo, RYS, RYT, and YACEP are registered marks with the USPTO and other jurisdictions.