History

Several years ago, Kate Ross had a vision of sharing the amazing gift of yoga with people that otherwise would not have access to it. As she faced the challenges of dealing with numerous family illnesses and raising a child, she found healing strength from yoga and the people in her family and community. She began formulating the idea of Yoga for the People with the goal of sharing the benefits of yoga with all people.Thanks to Kate’s vision and guidance, Yoga For the People has evolved tremendously during the past few years. YFP now has dedicated volunteers that work to provide donation-only community classes, yoga programming for various organizations as well as support for service-oriented yoga teachers.

While Kate was building Yoga For the People, Sarah Wolfgram was growing the Roots Yoga Project. Her vision was to connect volunteer yoga instructors with local nonprofit organizations to provide clients with free or low cost, onsite yoga as a tool for personal transformation. Sarah’s own transformation through yoga and her professional and educational background and strong connections with the local non-profit community were an ideal combination to move her idea forward. In 2007, she founded the Roots Yoga Project and began to survey local non-profits regarding the need and potential benefits of yoga programming within their organizations. Sarah has established innumerous connections with both volunteers and agencies that are ready to make the connection to begin spreading the gift of yoga.

In 2008, Kate and Sarah connected through mutual friends.  They continue to find evidence that they were walking in parallel lines, in many of the same places with many of the same people long before they met.  Kate and Sarah saw strengths in each other that would allow them to bring the program they had both been dreaming of to reality and decided to merge their talents and ideas together.

Now, Sarah serves as Director of Operations and Kate as Director of Programs and Research. Some of Sarah’s greatest strengths lay in her background in non-profit management, fundraising and community relations. Kate is most passionate about developing the content of the project by focusing on research, curriculum and how the benefits of yoga are realized by people we serve. The values and visions of these two women are so well-aligned and their skills so complimentary, it seems an ideal match for continuing the growth of Yoga For the People. Kate and Sarah are excited about working together on  the continued evolution of the YFP community!