Breathe in, Reach Out: The Ottawa Yoga Community Rally Around Youth in Need
**Yoga studios across Ottawa are participating in the Radha Yoga for Youth Outreach (RYYO) Yogathon in support of the RYYO program which has been offering yoga to marginalized youth in the city for the past 5 years. In this article, Rachel Barrett, one of the RYYO teachers shares some of her experiences with these very special young people.**
Last night I taught a class to children aged 4-12 at a Family Housing Shelter. There were 16 smiling faces present, most recent immigrants to Canada who have been introduced to yoga since they came to the Shelter.
I teach 2 classes here every week, one for youth and this class for kids.
When I arrived in the classroom the group was very energetic and excited to see that I brought my guitar along to class. We started with some Hatha, but stretching our bodies and paying attention to our breathing was not keeping their attention for very long. I continued by giving each child a piece of paper and a marker, asking them to draw or write what it is they get from coming to yoga, what do they take away from class?
The time to write and express themselves knowing that there is no wrong or right answer had them excited again and reengaged in the class.
After a few moments I asked them to think of one word that stands out from what they written to share with the rest of the group.
I began to play my guitar.. “We are going to create a yoga song together, each person has one important word of their own to contribute and each person will have time to say their word and then we will sing them together as a group.” …A few cheers, lots of big smiles and excited faces.
I started singing an example for them “Yoga helps me to feel…. free! I can be me!” Their eyes widened, so did mine. It is such an inspiring experience to share in creating music together!
I asked who was ready to go next, 3 kids raised their hands (12, 6 and 10 years old) and said their words “inspired, happy, strong” We then sang along together “Yoga helps me to feel… inspired, happy and strong!” The kids were now all smiling, participating, cooperating and patiently awaiting their turn.
The deeply powerful words kept coming “healthy, growing, flexible, relaxed, fun…” Wow, I am immensely proud of the change I can see in these kids in the past few minutes. I am witnessing how well they can work together, support and encourage one another, connect to each others words and sing together like a beautiful little choir of angels.
I noticed how quickly yoga impacts these children. Twenty minutes ago I had a class that was for the most part distracted, and doing their own thing. After this creative expression, I now had 16 pairs of eyes contently watching me and patiently waiting for the next part of class to be introduced.
My days are filled with this kind of experience, offering yoga and observing transformation.
The Yoga for Youth Outreach program operates because of support from the community. In this Light Radha Yoga Youth Outreach is hosting a week long Yogathon March 14th-20th to raise funds for the program and awareness in our community about the work we do and the youth whose lives benefit from our classes.
Yoga Studios and Teachers are patricipating by donating part of their revenue from classes and inviting students to become a Friend of RYYO
**Yoga studios across Ottawa are participating in the Radha Yoga for Youth Outreach (RYYO) Yogathon in support of the RYYO program which has been offering yoga to marginalized youth in the city for the past 5 years. In this article, Rachel Barrett, one of the RYYO teachers shares some of her experiences with these very special young people.**
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Last month RYYO received some media attention for having received a grant from the Trillium foundation of Ontario. Below is just one of three articles that was published. 
Saturday March 20th was the culmination of our week long Breathe in, Reach out Yogathon fundrasiser this year. It was a great afternoon at the Ottawa Radha Yoga Centre with two workshops followed by a celebration in honour of all the volunteers, donors and supporters of Radha Yoga Youth Outreach. 
Rogers Ottawa was kind enough to invite Jessica and Michael on their local cable show Daytime Ottawa. The hosts TL and Derek were very gracious and asked us about the RYYO program as well as our upcoming yogathon event. They even tried the tree pose!