If you’ve watched the news lately there’s a good chance you caught wind of the homeless epidemic or maybe even experienced it up close and personal in your own city.
The fact is, in the United States alone, six major cities have declared “National Crisis” including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Portland, Seattle, Honolulu and more are predicted to follow if nothing is done.
While most initiatives are aimed at curbing the crisis with food drives, handouts and housing, San Diego California resident and yogi Andrew Beinbrink, is taking a more soul based approach by bringing the healing power of yoga to homeless men, women and children.
“This is not a new idea,” said Beinbrink, CEO of SportsForce, a college athletic recruiting company. “This is already being done in different communities on a small scale, and the evidence of its success so far is mind-blowing.”
Says Beinbrink, “most people think that the homeless are just lazy, drug addicted, recluses, but the truth is that only a minority of homeless fall into this stereotype. The majorities, according to statistics, are homeless for a variety of reasons including post traumatic stress disorder, mental illness, depression, domestic violence and sexual abuse.”
“Now just imagine you were traumatized and homeless, alone with no shelter and not knowing where your next meal was coming from, this is the beauty of yoga,” says Beinbrink. “It’s been scientifically proven in multiple studies to help reduce the majority of mental and physical challenges faced by the homeless.”
Dr. Robert Marbut, considered the foremost expert on homelessness in the United States, backs up Beinbrinks statement by saying: “Yoga for homeless is ingenious because it addresses the root cause of homelessness, which is trauma,” to which he added, “I wish I had thought of it first.”
Marbut, who has advised more than 100 cities on homeless issues for three decades, says that, “No one is talking about diverting resources from existing homeless services for yoga, which has been popping up in all sorts of different places across the region, including wine bars, craft brewery pubs and controversially to some, public schools.”
Beinbrink said he got the idea of creating a yoga program for homeless people on a chilly morning in October, when he ran into a homeless veteran sleeping on the cold, wet concrete. “The man had a prosthetic leg and was with his dog. I just stopped beside him and felt an intense moment of compassion and human connection with him. I thought to myself… this is not right, no human deserves to sleep on the streets. So I immediately went back to my home only 100 yards away and grabbed a blue yoga mat as an act of kindness and compassion gave it to him.”
Shortly after, Yoga 4 Homeless, was born as a non-profit project to empower the yoga community and beyond to help our homeless neighbors. Locally, we’re already working with Serving Seniors, which works with seniors that are experiencing homelessness, and also PATH Home Connections and the San Diego Rescue Mission. “If it does anything to help their mental wellness, their spiritual well-being, and their physical wellness, I’m all for it,” said Michael Johnson, vice president of development for the Rescue Mission.
“I think the program that Andrew is doing, treating people around wellness and wholeness and focusing inwardly among their own selves, I don’t see how anything bad can come from it.”
Beinbrink donated about 100 yoga mats to the mission, where about 400 people reside on any night, Johnson said. With some offices moving from the mission’s main building to another building across the street, Johnson said he hopes they will have room to hold yoga classes for residents by summer.
Beinbrink said his project is the first national attempt at coordinating yoga programs for homeless people, but there are similar programs across the country who deserve a lot of credit. This includes nonprofits like Street Yoga run by Mark Lilly in Seattle and Homebase in the Bay Area run by Marty Fleetwood who said of her program: “Participants over time started reporting their progress. Some people reported that their doctors had lowered the dosage of medication they were on, and some said they had met goals that resulted in them moving into permanent housing.”
With an ambitious goal of bringing yoga to shelters and social service programs nationwide, Beinbrink is reaching out to yoga studios, yoga organizations and events, homeless programs and centers in hopes of creating partnerships. “This is key,” says Beinbrink, “the more alliances and support we can get from the yoga community the more awareness we will generate to help transform the homeless epidemic and better chance to get more of our homeless neighbors off the streets and living healthier lives.”
So far several companies and individuals have stepped up to help support Yoga 4 Homeless including over 25 studios, several major sponsors including LuluLemon, GAIAM, Suja juice, Perfect Bar and several others. Beinbrink has also set up a fundraising page, where anyone from the yoga community can help to raise money for mats, teachers and other expenses, which will he says is crucial in sustaining the program and making a long term impact.
To find out more about Yoga 4 Homeless please visit www.Yoga4Homeless.org
A fun way to support the cause – Take the Yoga 4 Homeless challenge a take a photo or video and challenge your friends. To learn more www.yoga4homeless.org/
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