SEYN

SEYN

Socially Engaged Yoga Network (SEYN) supports yoga teachers and community organizations committed to sharing the benefits of yoga with under-resourced communities in the Chicagoland area.  We build partnerships in the fields of community health, social services, environmental sustainability, and education to improve health, empower communities, and leverage resources for positive social change.

SEYN was founded in 2013 by a group of socially engaged yogis who saw the need for coming together to mobilize yoga teachers for social change. Since 2014, SEYN has been operating under the umbrella of YogaCare, a 501(c)(3) organization in Chicago that operates a variety of yoga work across Chicago. The following includes the leadership team, co-founders, and a sample of presenters at SEYN Gatherings over the years!

CO-LEADERS

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Yoli Maya Yeh is a Yoga & Shiatsu Therapist (AOBTA, VYASA, Yoga for the Special Child) and an Educator in Comparative Religions and Global Studies (MA Comparative Religious Ethics).  Yoli works at the intersection of Indigenous Preservation, Healing Arts and Social Justice through the design and implementation of experiential education-based Diversity, Dialogue, Collaboration and Community Implementation Toolkits.  Raised in her family's Native American spiritual teachings, Yoli spent twelve years of her young adulthood studying language, yoga, tantra, healing arts and meditation in India. A native of Chicago, she blends her understandings of Indigenous wisdom teachings, mind-body science, yogic discipline, and play into innovative learning programs for all ages and abilities. www.yogawithyoli.com @yoliyogini 

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Marcelyn Cole shares yoga's transformative practices accessibly with people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. In addition to twenty-five years of yoga practice, her offerings are informed by study and work in Ayurveda, yoga teaching for diversity, trauma informed yoga, yoga therapy, prison yoga, family yoga, Montessori early childhood education, regenerative ecological design, decolonization and accountability, de-anthropocentrism, and various holistic traditions especially Sri Vidya Tantra. Marcelyn has shared yoga in studios, schools, community centers, art and activist spaces, offices, jail, and urban farms. She has consulted for non-profits involved in increasing yoga's accessibility, and trained teachers in accessible modifications of practices. Marcelyn currently works with YogaCare’s programs in Belmont Cragin at healthcare centers, a senior center, and Steinmetz College Prep where she teaches yoga as an alternative to suspension with Northwest Side Housing Center’s juvenile justice programming. In addition to weekly classes and private lessons, Marcelyn offers workshops in support of social justice and ecological healing. She has been involved in organizing efforts on the ground and currently serves as a Harassment and Grievance Officer for the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. https://www.facebook.com/marcelyncole/

PRESENTERS & PANELISTS: 2014- PRESENT

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CO-FOUNDERS

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Marty Clemons

Carol Horton

Greg Van Hyfte

Julia Pedersen

Yoli Maya Yeh