These spry spirits at Rush are such gems. They are why we continue to demand justice.
Carolyn’s talent and kindness has them full on meditating at the end of the session –Thank you Sheltered Yoga for the opportunity to share and enjoy these amazing beings.
-KELLY
The theme this year: Putt, Prana, and Peace.
This includes three stations the kids go to throughout the day…
Yoga Station
Sheltered Yoga Curriculum (Unit Plan: Peace) lesson
and Mini Golf!!!
Along with all this fun, all the kids get a healthy breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a big bag filled with school supplies, toiletries, games, and other fun stuff!
They had SO much fun! We do this event annually and are always looking for support, volunteers, and inkind donations!
Tina LeMar was guest speaker at the NJ conference for Non-Profit last Wednesday! She spoke on mindful techniques to decrease stress and anxiety. The attendees learned different techniques, through Sheltered Yoga’s specialized, evidence-based, trauma-informed curriculum, that can help calm the amygdala and allow for effective problem solving and positive self talk and self regulation. One of the attendees wrote to Tina about the benefits she already experienced from the session!!
“I just wanted to thank you for doing a session yesterday and talking about yoga, breathing and meditation. Your story and practical experience is very inspiring to me, and I will now include diaphragmatic breathing and mediation in my daily routine.
My body seems to have an overactive fight or flight response, sometimes I don’t even know what the trigger is, which is very frustrating. I have changed my diet, seen various alternative practitioners, take herbal supplements, have done a lot of “inner work” around past trauma and emotions, go for weekly reiki sessions, try to ground and get outside as much as possible but I have not been able to get the relief I would like around panic, anxiety and the feeling of overwhelm and exhaustion.
But after yesterday, I am now hopeful that there is a path to feel more at peace in my body.
So I just wanted to let you know that our message and personal story was truly an inspiration to me and the work you do is so important and needed in this world today.
Hope to see you at UIH sometime!”
Sheltered Yoga is thrilled to announce that we are now apart of the Giving Assistant. If you shop online this is a great way to support our important work!! great Giving Assistant’s mission is to transform everyday shopping into charitable action.Giving Assistant shoppers save money with cash back and coupon codes at over 3,000 online brands. Then, they have the option to donate a portion of their cash back earnings to any one of 1.2 million 501(c)3 nonprofit and charitable organizations in the U.S. We also offer a free, convenient browser button that alerts shoppers when they’re on a cash back eligible site, and that automatically loads the latest promo codes, so shoppers don’t have to click away and search for coupons.
Join today and start giving back while you shop!!!
(Images of Sheltered Yoga Summer Camp Program through HomeFront Mercer Camp at Lawrence Community Center. Many thanks to everyone we worked with at HomeFront/LCC and SY Teachers: Beth Hahn, Katie Gardner, Erica Vogler, and Cathy Bailey.)
A few weeks ago I sent out the End of the Year letter and donation form- by the way, if anyone didn’t receive one…and you LOVE Sheltered Yoga and you want to donate…PLEASE let me know or go online and donate today at: DONATE Everything helps to make the individuals we serve find Hope & Love again!
When putting together the letter, with many thanks to Gabby Rodriguez, Sheltered Yoga’s new Executive Assistant (special thanks to Younok & Remy Dumortier for supporting this position), I was forced to stop and take a full inventory on this jam packed year. WOW! It has been a whirlwind that will continue right into 2018, which is okay by me.
Here are just some of the highlights:
* We opened several new locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and now in Delaware! So exciting!
* We are serving and positively impacting over 4,500 children and adults per year.
* We have significantly increased our populations of Veterans, individuals with severe mental and physical illnesses, incarcerated moms and their babies, individuals in recovery, opioid addicts, individuals in reentry programs, teens living in group homes, and children and adults living in poverty.
* We had our first very successful Annual Wine and Cheese event at the beautiful Morven Museum & Gardens (thank you Martha & Mike Mayo for supporting and hosting this event)
* We have had many foundations and corporations continue to support us, such as; Sanofi Pharmaceutical, Omega Institute, YogaSoul Yoga Studio, Douty Foundation, Seybert Foundation, Lululemon Athletica, Johnson & Johnson, and many others. We are so grateful to you.
* We held our first ‘sponsored’ Sheltered Yoga Curriculum Training, thanks to Lululemon, to help increase our teacher database and expand our reach.
* We have lots of help behind the scenes now from Gabby Rodriguez, Judy Wysocki (grants scout), and as always, my hubbie, Michael Kostinas.
* I had beautiful, complimentary head shots taken of me for SY Press by Kapu Patel Photography based out of Princeton- with the help of Meena Tiwari for making me look so pretty.
* We received a bunch of new mats for classes through Give Back Yoga & Gaiam.
* AND we are currently working on our 2nd Annual Golf & Spa Event happening Sunday, May 20th– SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! And if you would like to become a member of this event committee, please get in touch with us! We need all the help we can get! Find the save the date flyer below. If you can, please POST at your place of business (and on your fridge!) It also gives all sponsorship opportunities on the website at: www.SYGolfandSpaEvent.com
Final Save the Date Poster and Postcard2
WOW, that’s a lot of stuff going on! And we have SO MUCH MORE planned for 2018. I am very excited. Want to get involved? Please email me and let me know… tina@shelteredyoga.org
(These are pics from our 2nd Annual End of Summer event for the Greater Trenton Area kids. This year’s event theme…Kicks, Karma, & Kindness!)
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Princeton Academy of Martial Arts (www.PAMAUSA.com) for housing over 60 kids and several adult staff and volunteers for this event that included a healthy breakfast, lunch & snacks, yoga, mindfulness workshop, martial arts training & history, and a big bag of goodies that included school supplies, snacks, and toys. Sheltered Yoga would like to give a huge thanks to Yoga Soul Studio for fundraising for the second year in a row to sponsor this event, Sanofi Pharmaceutical, Sanofi Foundation for North America, and Kay Lavsi and ALL the volunteers from Sanofi who did an absolutely AMAZING job helping us pull the event together for a second year in a row, as well as sponsoring the breakfast, lunch, and goodie bags, and other significant sponsors such as, Avi Prabhakar, Johnson & Johnson, and Hamilton Dental Associates. Special thanks to Sam Levine for helping me convince the guys to have us use their location!!! Hahaha
What an absolutely FUN year it has been. I hope to see more new faces to Sheltered Yoga in 2018 through volunteering, sponsorship, teaching/teacher training, and event planning and attending. Interested in getting more involved with our beautiful organization? Please contact us… tina@shelteredyoga.org Thank you!
Have a fantastic 2018 everyone.
Blessings,
Tina
Thank you to all our sponsors for this event!
SY-Curriculum-Training-LULU.pdf (3872 downloads ) USE THIS FORM TO CHECK OUT OUR UPCOMING CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Sheltered Yoga Curriculum Certification©
Sheltered Yoga has a very engaging and innovative platform, as it brings a trauma-informed, evidence-based curriculum, with the goals of raising self esteem, self worth, self confidence and hope to individuals and communities.
Who is this for:
People working with children and adults living in high risk and/or poverty stricken areas, yoga instructors, non-yoga instructors, moms/dads (guardians) and teachers that need proven ways to engage their kids/students, people working with children or adults living with trauma, anxiety, depression, stress, low self-esteem, and issues with self regulation, behavior, self awareness and control, people that want to learn more about themselves, people that enjoy having fun!
What will you learn:
Along with everything listed below in the training descriptions, you will walk away with a strong understanding of how to teach individuals with trauma, individuals living in high risk and/or poverty stricken, and people suffering with low self esteem, a lack of hope, behavioral issues, and people having a difficult time focusing and concentrating. What you may not anticipate is that you will also learn a lot about yourself and your uniqueness while having a lot of fun in the process.
Sheltered Yoga Core Curriculum© Training and Residency Hours
$695- https://shelteredyoga.org/
Each student will be taught an overview of the entire curriculum in 2 full days, become trauma, culturally, and situationally informed, learn the techniques and psychology of simple yoga postures, along with mindfulness and meditation training. In addition, all students will have access to a multitude of information and support in a special member log in location through Sheltered Yoga’s website during their residency and continual access if the student decides to become a regular teacher for Sheltered Yoga. Lastly, every student, after completing their 15 hours of volunteer residency, will be placed at a facility that best fits their interests and style of teaching.
Sheltered Yoga Core Curriculum© Training without volunteer hours
$895- https://shelteredyoga.org/
Each student will be taught an overview of the entire curriculum in 2 full days, become trauma, culturally, and situationally informed, learn the techniques and psychology of simple yoga postures, along with mindfulness and meditation training. In addition, all students will have access to a multitude of information and support in a special member log in location through Sheltered Yoga’s website for six months and continual access if the student decides to become a regular teacher for Sheltered Yoga. Lastly, every student will be placed at a facility that best fits their interests and style of teaching if they so choose.
REVIEWS:
Peer Review of Sheltered Yoga Curriculum
Trenton 365 radio one hour interview
https://soundcloud.com/
* Each student will be taught an overview of the entire curriculum in 2, 4 or 8 sessions, become trauma,
culturally, and situationally informed, learn the techniques and psychology of simple yoga postures, along
with mindfulness and meditation training. In addition, all students will have access to a multitude of
information and support in a special member log in location through Sheltered Yoga’s website during their
residency and continual access if the student decides to become a regular teacher for Sheltered Yoga.
Lastly, every student, after completing their 15 hours of volunteer residency hours, will be placed at a facility
that best fits their interests and style of teaching.
Testimonials:
“Learning the Sheltered Yoga curriculum has given me a new understanding of trauma, how it can be triggered, and how it is expressed. The care and attention that has gone into the lessons is impressive. Tina does an excellent job of connecting the lessons to different learning styles. Also, it is a curriculum that is engaging for both children and adults and can be taught in a variety of settings, including a classroom, workplace, or as part of a community program. Whether working with groups or individuals, I highly recommend this program.”
-Meredith R. (Certified SY Curriculum Teacher)
“I currently teach the curriculum at a location that was set up by Tina through Sheltered Yoga’s programming. Within the curriculum, the students are given a life skill to explore and an activity relating to that skill. After the activity we reflect and the students share their thoughts with the group. We then practice yoga using specific postures relating to the life skill we learned and end with relaxation. The Sheltered Yoga curriculum helps the students grow mentally and physically, helping them integrate what they learn into better life choices and a healthier lifestyle. The curriculum offers the students a safe place to explore their thoughts, grow their confidence & hope, and challenge their body and mind with postures and relaxation techniques.”
-Tina I. (Certified Yoga Instructor & Sheltered Yoga Curriculum Teacher)
“The Sheltered Yoga curriculum is very inspiring. It is presented in a real life presentation that any age can understand. Tina gives examples and then offers suggestions until the youth can relate or grasp what is being explained. The curriculum tends to be presented to the class and then is shown through an interactive activity. The activity is fun, engaging and always different. I have seen the most resistant teen try to find a way to participate, even if they don’t think you notice they are participating. It is exciting to be in these classes and the yoga and meditation are an added bonus. Participants are able to learn about ways their brain works, how breathing affects their bodies, memory and interpretation along with a variety of social behaviors and reactions. It helps youth realize why they react some ways as well as why someone else may react differently. It is really amazing to sit in a room full of teens who have experienced trauma and see the connections made and the desire to learn more. Sheltered Yoga is a unique and successful curriculum that embraces all ages.”
-Stacy Santiago, Associate Vice President, Center for Family Services, NJ
“I would like to recommend the Sheltered Yoga Curriculum that my class has participated in this past year. I have seen a positive impact on the students because of their participation in this program. They enjoy the sessons and several of their parents have commented that their children are also bringing their knowledge home. My favorite lesson was the mindful listening exercise. I find that this skill is needed in today’s world of education. The Sheltered Yoga teacher, Tina LeMar, was very patient and pleasant with the children. She made the class interesting and fun!
-Kathleen Asta, Kindergarten teacher at Gesu School, Phila. PA
#I AM TRENTON Campaign that Sheltered Yoga (through Tina LeMar, the Founder) was able to help launch through Social Media. What fun! We are especially thankful to them as we have received repeat grants from the foundation over the past 2+ years. Thank you @iamtrentoncf for all that you do for the city!
