History: The Roots of Our Service

Founded in 1998 by Sarahjoy Marsh, Living Yoga began with yoga classes twice a week at Columbia River Correctional Institution, a co-ed minimum-security prison in Portland, Oregon. Sarahjoy’s long-time passion and devotion to karma yoga practice of teaching and reaching out to those without access to yoga inspired several of her teacher trainees, who also started teaching yoga at the prison. With three years of program delivery experience, and a dedicated handful of volunteers, Living Yoga became a 501(c)(3) organization in December of 2002.
 
As the enthusiasm for this work and the clarity of our organization grew more stable, more people came to us wanting to join our effort to bring yoga to people who are unable to access regular classes. In addition to teaching in correctional facilities, we expanded our program to reach more diverse special populations that may not otherwise have access to the life-enhancing benefits of yoga.
 
Today, we serve a wide range of facilities and institutions including prisons, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, battered women’s shelters and programs for disadvantaged youth. We have more than 70 active volunteers teaching more than 10,000 student hours of yoga each year with one full-time Director, one .7 part-time Volunteer Coordinator, and a volunteer Board of Directors to support and coordinate our programs.  We currently serve twelve institutions with 18 different classes/week, and continually receive requests for our services from additional organizations.
 
Without the commitment and service of our volunteers and the support of our donors, we would not be able to continue to provide and expand our services each year to men, women and teens.