Debby Kaminsky, Founder of Newark Yoga Movement

Compiled by Sannyasi Samatamurti (Anne Monsees)

When did you make the switch from the business world to the yoga world?

I started practicing yoga when my twins were four years old. After practicing I felt relaxed, stretched, and it worked my entire body to the core. I brought yoga three times a week to the advertising agency where I worked and my coworkers agreed that yoga was the best thing going. It was progressive because this was years ago. I decided after 25 years leading corporate advertising firms, to leave and became a yoga instructor. I started teaching yoga to suburban moms in yoga studios. While everyone needs yoga, that wasn’t enough for me; I started organizing the annual Global Mala event in 2007. My marketing background helped to elevate it. In 2012 one thousand people from Newark and beyond attended this event at Newark School’s Stadium. The Global Mala Project is a charity event that brings “the global yoga community together from every continent…uniting in service and collective action.” (Rea, Shiva. 2016). It was so cool to bring so many people together.  This was needed in Newark.

How did you bring yoga into schools on such a large scale?

In 2008 I was running events like the Global Mala in Newark. Through this event I had the opportunity to meet Senator Cory Booker who was Mayor at the time.  It was a fluke that I had been teaching his brother Cary and his wife in their pre-natal yoga class. At Global Mala, Senator Booker did his first 25 sun salutations ever! In yoga there is a concept called “spanda” which means to watch the thoughts that bubble up from the inside authentically.  That’s what happened with me. A lightbulb went off and I said to myself, “I need to bring yoga to all the schools in Newark. Every single child needs to have yoga.” I saw a need. I had a vison.

My prior contact with now Senator Booker, led me to organize a meeting him. We spoke of a recent article published about the state of Newark Public Schools and graduation rates, way below the state average. Yoga in schools wasn’t a new thing, but this would be different. It would be on a large scale. I wanted to place yoga in “required environments” e.g. classrooms and PE classes.  I told the mayor, “We need to bring yoga into the schools here for all the children, and then target children who might need extra help.” Cory Booker thought it was a pretty good idea.

Pilot Test

As a result of the meeting, the City of Newark’s Education Liaison sent Newark Yoga Movement’s executive summary plan to all schools in Newark. Then I started getting calls. First, from charter schools in Newark like Kipp NJ Team Academy and Philips Academy.  Finally, the big call came from Newark Public Schools.  We organized a pilot test for over 300 students in kindergarten to 8^th grade. Students participated in yoga only one time for 20 minutes and then completed a survey. 64% of the students reported that they were less stressed, more relaxed and peaceful after one 20-minute session. 71% percent of the students thought it would be good for the whole student body. As a result of this pilot test I was able to start bringing yoga into more schools.

Then came the meeting with the Superintendent who endorsed the program. However, even with these endorsements only a few schools reached out to me. At first there was a lot of push back. I had to deal with the bureaucracy and the politics of a school system. I would call our program cheap intervention (I still do) and charter schools would reply, “Well, cheap intervention to us is building a new school.”

Very slowly the movement started to develop. I went door to door, school to school, and started to schedule classes for free. Connections also happened at a personal level. I would meet a social worker, a principal, or someone who would recommend me and write the grants needed for NYM to come to the school. I made it happen at all levels, from the top down but also from the sides through individuals at the schools.

Today NYM teaches in entire schools. That was my mission, to reach all the students in entire schools. To make yoga a requirement. I did not want to provide just afterschool programs, because what about the other 500 kids in a school.  I want every student to be exposed to yoga and yoga’s self-regulating techniques.

How do schools fund the yoga program?

For the first few years Newark Yoga Movement received donations mostly from individual donors and offered yoga classes for free. Then NYM started to get donations from foundations and corporations. I started to get the word out to the yoga community about the students we were teaching and began training additional teachers.

 Foundations and corporations whom we have worked with now call and say, “Debby, we want to give a $5,000 donation. Can you write a proposal?”  I am always honest about how the funds are being used to meet our needs and requirements. We operate on 20% donations and 80% comes from other sources. I think that is a pretty good, sustainable approach. I like everything above board. I came from a business background and I like everything to be organized and honest.

For the last three years all schools pay a nominal programming fee which they have either budgeted for, or they apply for their own grants. In this way we can at least cover the cost of the yoga teachers. It is also important that the schools have a fiscal stake in the program and believe that the program is helping their students, school and culture.

The last superintendent saw the positive shift in students and supported the movement with a $36,000 grant that 22 schools competed for.  Nine schools were chosen to have yoga programs.

NYM has become a model for other yoga movements in the country because of its sustainability. This is a really great thing! There is now Atlanta Yoga Movement in Georgia and Indy Yoga Movement in Indianapolis, Indiana. These yoga movements are modeled after Newark Yoga Movement and then tailored to meet their own needs.

 I suggest if you want to start a non-profit, start it with someone to bounce ideas off of. I think it’s always better. It is good to have a team and that is something I didn’t have when I started NYM.

What are the results of having yoga in schools?

Today 25 schools offer yoga programs in Newark through NYM. It has helped increase attendance rates and has helped decrease disciplinary actions. There is a mental health crisis going on at present, technology addiction and a lot of other things. Yoga is helping the children of Newark cope as they face violence, jail, having seen people shot, someone in their own family shot, being raised by someone who is not their parent, gangs, and on and on. These children need self-regulation techniques. Self-regulation is challenging for children living on this stage because they can feel good in school, but then go home and see that the way their parents or caregivers deal with anger is often physically. Alternatively, in school the children learn how to deal with anger through breathing. It is always two steps forward one step back.

We are nine years later and have taught 30,000 students in Newark (170 classes a week), 4,500 educators, plus parents and caregivers. This makes it one of the fastest growing yoga movements in the country. Graduation rates in Newark schools have gone up and the children are happier and more peaceful. Of course, there are multiple reasons why graduation rates have gone up, but it’s an unbelievable thing.

We hear from teachers that there are changes happening in the classroom. They are so thankful that they actually have a moment to pause and breathe, and that’s a really big deal. This year NYM focused on exposing yoga to even more of the youngest school children and added an additional 14 pre-k classes.

It is really rewarding work. It is not always easy, but it is rewarding. We support each other. Yoga is for everybody. It makes everybody feel included.

What are the main objectives of teaching yoga in school?

In schools the time for yoga is shorter, about 20-30 minutes so we do not get in the way of the curriculum, but do our part to help enhance it. I’m about teaching kids how to self-regulate and give them the tools to help with stress and anxiety and increase focus and confidence. It is pretty cool.

Yoga gives an experience that is felt in the body. Students know how it is to be tight and stressed, and in yoga they are given the experience to relax and let go. The simple things we teach to help self-regulation and turn on the parasympathetic nervous system can make all the difference. A lot of kids are so angry. They say, “I am not happy. I am not good.” Yoga teachers need to serve and meet students where they are at that moment. Not with the lesson plan they are excited to teach. It might be completely irrelevant and they could do more damage than good. You need to meet children where they are, so they really start to feel comfortable. You make them feel safe. I say to students, “In yoga, you try your best, you are doing it right.” Yoga time becomes a kind of break for students. With kids, if you get them, you get them forever, but if you don’t get them it takes a really long time to win their trust.

As a teacher it is important to understand that not everybody learns the same way. Visual aids are a positive tool. Repetition is also important to get the class into a routine. Yoga can go across curriculum. Expose students to new ideas and encourage students to learn manners on how to behave in different situations.

Show up to teach children as your authentic self. If doing a song or pose doesn’t resonate with you, then do not do it. You need to make sure that what you do is authentic. Think of the big idea and then plan how you are going to execute it.

What is the future for NYM?

My biggest dream for Newark Yoga Movement is for the teachers and principals to start integrating yoga more. If the teachers can teach yoga then it will make NYM more sustainable.  Teachers are the continuity. Every student needs to be taught how to breath, to be exposed to some yoga, but that doesn’t mean that NYM needs to be there every day. We teach the teachers and they experience the effects. I get emails from teachers from across the state, saying that they are practicing and using what I taught them. They feel more relaxed and energized and the students are more focused.

People who really believe in the power of yoga and what it can do advise us and for that we are lucky—John Schreiber (Chairman CEO NJPAC), Gurmukh, Shiva Rea and also Senator Booker. Anyone can come work with Newark Yoga Movement. We have volunteers, paid teachers, and anyone can get involved in any way. You can observe in a classroom, or maybe you know someone who wants to bring yoga to their school.

I am looking to hire administrators and step back to be the founder. I would like to help promote the mission on a big scale. I will help with strategies until the next person feels they can handle Newark Yoga Movement on their own.

WORKS-CITED

Interviews or Lectures from Debby Kaminsky:

Atlanta Yoga Movement. (2018). Retrieved from URL. http://atlantayogamovement.org/

Global Mala Project. (2016). Retrieved from URL. http://www.globalmala.com/

Indy Yoga Movement (2018). Retrieved from URL. https://www.indyyoga.org/

Kaminsky, D. (2018, January 18). Year of the Bold, Public Event.

Kaminsky, D. (2018, March 30).  Be The change. Free Event.

Kaminsky, D. (2018, March 31). Personal interview.

Kaminsky, D. (2018, May 6). Powerflow Kids Yoga Teacher Training.

Newark Yoga Movement. (2018). Retrieved from URL. https://newarkyogamovement.com & Instagram: newarkyogamovement