Sharanam Institute Brooklyn

Sharanam means refuge.

Sharanam Institute Brooklyn is a sanctuary in Boerum Hill/Gowanus — an institute for holistic learning and human experience, dedicated to mental and social health, growth, and expanding every dimension of human development.

Expansion lives here. So does yoga, creativity, mindfulness, intergenerational study, and gathering.

Through Jiva Liberation Inc., our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we are creating an infrastructure to meet real community needs.

What We Do

Free and low-cost classes in movement, meditation, and mindfulness
Arts, music, and cultural programming
Trauma-informed healing programs for veterans and the formerly incarcerated
Outreach in schools and senior centers
Scholarship funds for training and development, including Jivamukti Yoga® teacher training

Our Partners

Prison Yoga Project · Veterans Yoga Project · Brooklyn.org · NYC Parks Department · Omega Institute · Ananda Ashram · NYC Department for the Aging

The $100,000 Programming Campaign

Last spring, this collective secured the space. Now we fill it. This campaign funds a full year of programs and partnerships — the teachers, facilitators, scholarships, and outreach that turn a space into a sanctuary.

FUNDING 26/27
Partnership/ Programming	$35,000
Scholarships & Equity	$20,000
Staffing & Coordination	$28,000
Nonprofit Space Use	$17,000

Why Now

Health and joy are not luxury items. And yet, in this city, with inequity and the cost of living what they are, rest and recovery belong to the few. We know this. We feel it. Anger and fear have become the loudest voices in the room. Loneliness is a public health crisis. So many of us are exhausted — priced out, burned out, quietly drifting apart from one another.

There is a name now for what we used to simply have: "third places." The church, the temple, the mosque, the community center, the park bench. Places where neighbors helped one another, where each person could discover their gifts and offer them. When those places disappear, something in us goes with them — our kinship. Because how do we learn to care for one another if we never sit in the same room — a room where we are permitted to grow, to soften, to change?

This is what a sanctuary for learning makes possible. Here, teachers and leaders in yoga, philosophy, nutrition, activism, social justice, and the arts offer what they know — through programs, certifications, workshops, talks, and gatherings.

New York doesn't need another wellness space. It needs a sanctuary where learning is serious and sangha is real. Nothing in this city is free — not rent, not teachers, not the light and heat that keep a room warm. Accessibility doesn't happen on its own. It happens because supporters like you advocate for it, fund it, and hold the door open for the person behind them.

Our doors are open. Your contribution keeps them open — for everyone, So that together, we build this refuge.

With deep gratitude and love,

HaChi Yu
Founder, Sharanam Institute Brooklyn

Tax-Deductible Giving

Jiva Liberation Inc. dba Sharanam Institute Brooklyn · EIN: 93-4982780 · 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

SHARANAM INSTITUTE BROOKLYN