Dear Supportive Community Member:

The Santa Fe Community Yoga Center (SFCYC) invites you to participate in our ongoing Yoga in Prisons program fundraiser. Your generous contributions directly support the Yoga in Prisons program. The Yoga in Prisons program is a continuation of SFCYC’s commitment to providing yoga outside the studio walls, and is a nine-week peer-to-peer yoga training program, developed and led by Phoenix Savage, a certified yoga and meditation instructor. The women inmates at the Springer Correctional Center in Springer, NM, learn the fundamentals of teaching Yoga, Meditation, and Mindfulness to their peers. Currently, four peer instructors (with three more in training) resource their peers with beginner yoga, intermediate yoga, chair yoga, and guided meditation classes.

SFCYC is the only nonprofit yoga center in the Northern New Mexico area and supports healthy individuals and communities through accessible, inclusive wellness programming, including Yoga in Schools, in addition to the Yoga in Prisons program.

We are seeking your continued support as funding cuts have significantly impacted the future operations of the Yoga in Prisons program. Our current round of funding will end on June 30, 2025, and our primary funder has withdrawn further financial support.

New Mexico is a land-rich state, and as such, prisons are located at a distance from major urban centers. Springer Correctional is a 2.5-hour drive from Santa Fe (ONE-WAY). Since the inception of the Yoga In Prisons program in 2023, Phoenix has driven to Springer at least once a week, sometimes two or three times a week. These visits are necessary not only to train the inmates, but also to monitor the
progress of each class, provide continuous coaching, and extend a weekly guided meditation so that the peer instructors are also resourced.

Service expansion to the Yoga in Prisons program at Springer includes business development coaching for the inmate instructors, affording the women an opportunity to set goals for continuing as professional yoga instructors. Your generous support has afforded each peer instructor, upon release, with the opportunity to study for their 200-hour Yoga Instructor Certification.

As of January 2025, the Yoga In Prisons program began offering weekly guided meditation and chair yoga for male inmates at Central Corrections in Las Lunas, NM. These weekly sessions are offered explicitly to geriatric inmates and other inmates receiving medical care. This aspect of the Yoga in Prisons program is also in jeopardy. Nonetheless, the time spent has proven to be a vital resource for inmates who look forward to every session.

Please consider giving today and giving often. THANK YOU!

To successfully operate the Yoga In Prison Project at a bare minimum, the cost is $60,000 annually. If you would like further information about the Yoga In Prisons program or would like Phoenix Savage to speak at an event on the values and uptake to society on the importance of providing inmates with constructive routes for themselves and their communities post-incarceration, please contact her at
phoenix@santafecommunityyoga.org or by phone at 505-810-3018.

All proceeds support the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center- Yoga in Prisons program.

You may also drop off your donation at your next class- please indicate it is specifically for the Yoga in Prisons program or mail your contributions to: Santa Fe Community Yoga Center, 3229 Richards Ln #B, Santa Fe, NM 87507

Warmly,

Phoenix Savage

Director of Yoga in Prisons

Yoga in Prisons

By Santa Fe Community Yoga Center

Yoga in Prisons

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