The Project
This year we launched an exciting new initiative in the northwest Toronto neighbourhood of Rexdale, called Free Up.
The program offers youth between the ages of 13 and 24 the opportunity to learn yoga and mindfulness practices in a familiar space within their own community through free drop-in classes where food is provided and transportation is subsidized for those who attend.
A team of amazing youth leaders has grown out of the Free Up classes, and they have initiated a fundraising campaign to support a series of day-long retreats and outings designed to take their yoga practices further and build an even stronger sense of community amongst Free Up participants.
The outings will involve intensive yoga and meditation sessions, guest yoga teachers and trips to yoga studios around Toronto, introductory classes in other mindfulness-based modalities such as martial arts and theatre, as well as motivational speakers and mentors from their community. Our aim is to provide youth with varied and fresh experiences of the practices they have already begun to nourish.
Please support our youth leaders and their blossoming Free Up community by checking out this awesome video 100% created by members of our Free Up Rexdale initiative and BE INSPIRED to give big and support their yoga journey!
What We Need
Your very-generously-donated dollars will go towards:
- stipends for our guest yoga teachers and session facilitators
- honorariums for youth leaders
- subsidizing expenses for youth to travel beyond the community where they live
- healthy meals and snacks as part of the retreats
The amount we raise will determine the number of day retreats we can hold in the upcoming year and what they can include. Eventually we’ll be working up to raising funds for a weekend-long residential yoga retreat for our youth participants!
The Impact
At New Leaf we believe that yoga helps youth tap into their inner resources and create more peace in their lives.
YOUR support will help us provide even more opportunities to the young people we work with AND will provide leadership and mentoring roles from some of our participants — youth supporting their peers in their own community.
Other Ways You Can Help
Please consider sharing this campaign on your social media and help us get the word out! We so appreciate anything you can do to help us meet our goal.
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