ABOUT THE BYF
Above is an interview undertaken with Brighton Yoga Foundation's Chair, Davy Jones, by Sussex University Students talking about the foundation's origins and activities. For an extended version of this interview, head over to our BYF YouTube channel here
Brighton Yoga Foundation has four main strategic goals:
- To explain and promote the values and benefits of yoga as widely as possible to people in Brighton & Hove and surrounding areas;
- To offer the therapeutic benefits of yoga to those who may not otherwise be able to access it, because of real or perceived health, cultural or economic barriers;
- To practice, educate and advocate for accessibility, inclusion and equity across the yoga and well-being spaces of Brighton & Hove and surrounding areas; and
- To support the existing yoga community in the area and spreading that community wider (locally and where appropriate making national & international links) based on the yoga values outlined above .
The Foundation was originally set up as the Brighton Yoga Festival in 2014 to run an annual free-entry yoga festival in the city to help reach those in the wider community who were not aware of the benefits of yoga. In 2016, it became a registered charity and has now changed its name to the Brighton Yoga Foundation.
Throughout the year, the Foundation works with others to provide regular Yoga Community Outreach Activity: free or subsidised yoga classes to those in greatest need and who do not normally have access to yoga. These include yoga for mental health, for women recovering from abuse & trauma, for stressed teenagers, yoga in schools, for the police and for the NHS.
At its annual Annual Festival the Foundation brings together yoga teachers from across the city and beyond to offer yoga classes and workshops. For the first six years, the Festival was the largest free-entry yoga Festival in the UK. It is open to all, regardless of age, experience or fitness levels with many specialist and beginners’ classes for those who have never tried yoga before. Since 2019, entry has been on a "Pay What You Can Afford" basis.
The Foundation also provides many services to the local yoga community These include our Directory of yoga studios and teachers on this website, a yoga mat rental service, regular discussion forums for yoga teachers, and our project to record the history of yoga in the city. It also supports the UK Community Yoga Collective that brings together similar yoga community outreach projects in the UK, and the Yoga Teachers Trade Union
Listen to what we do
Davy Jones, Chair of Brighton Yoga Foundation, explains to the audience at a lunchtime event organised Cognitive Law, who we are, where we came from and what we do. (We apologise for the poor sound quality but feel this has such an important message, that it is still worth sharing).
The Brighton Yoga Foundation is a not-for-profit registered charity (number 1166982).