https://thecoastnews.com/2014/04/homegrown-yoga-program-expands-to-other-state
ENCINITAS, CALIFORNIA, April 24, 2014 (The Coast News): At Broome Street Academy, a school that serves homeless and foster-care teens in New York City, students have been doing yoga since January. The template for their program: Encinitas Union School District yoga. “I’m actually surprised at how it’s been embraced,” said Barbara McKeon, Head of School at Broome Street Academy. “Even the hard-nosed streetball guys are doing downward dog.”
In 2011, a representative from the Sonima Foundation, previously known as the Jois Foundation, introduced yoga at Capri Elementary in Encinitas. Encouraged by the results, in 2012 the organization put together a $700,000 grant for yoga and nutrition at EUSD schools. That was followed by a $1.4 million grant from the foundation for this school year, which increased the number of yoga teachers at all nine district schools. Drawing from EUSD best practices, the Sonima Foundation developed a yoga curriculum. A challenge to the program was dismissed by the courts.
The foundation has since exported the program to 10 schools over the past year, including in Florida and New York. In the county, yoga has made its way to two schools in the Cajon Valley Union School District and the Monarch School in San Diego.
McKeon said she’s grateful for the program because her average student doesn’t have a lot of exercise opportunities. And many are grappling with social and emotional issues. “Students are using the calming techniques outside of yoga class, we’ve noticed,” McKeon said. She added Broome Street Academy is partnering with the University of Virginia to research the program’s impact on students. Culturally and geographically speaking, Broome Street is very different from EUSD schools, McKeon said. Not to mention, Broome Street students are older. So, the program had to be adapted to fit her school. Still, she said yoga seems to help people of all stripes.