The Roots of Our Service

In 1998, Sarahjoy Marsh started teaching yoga twice a week at Columbia River Correctional Institution, a co-ed minimum-security prison in Portland, Oregon. Her karma yoga practice also 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, 2002. In 2002, the State of Oregon opened Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF), which is both a medium- and a minimum-security institution for women only. This inspired a change in our program services. New volunteers came forward, enabling us to offer four classes a week at CCCF.

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. Living Yoga offers or has offered yoga for drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, for women and teen girls struggling with eating disorders, for women who have suffered the tragedy of domestic violence, for homeless youth, for people transitioning out of the criminal justice system, for low-income persons accessing transition services.

Today, Living Yoga supports 50 active volunteers who teach 13 classes per week.  Without the commitment and service of our volunteers, we would not be able to continue to provide and expand our service (see our list of current programs below).

Living Yoga volunteers are practitioners of a variety of yoga traditions. One of our goals is to be supported by the entire Portland are yoga community. In 2007, 19 local yoga studios supported our fundraising efforts!