YOU CALL THIS YOGA

You Call This Yoga was founded by recreational athlete and dentist, Howie Shareff, in response to yoga helping him manage his rapidly aging body. Howie believed that slow gentle movement, accompanied by mindful breathing, could help anyone.
Our nonprofit has been serving the Raleigh, NC community since 2010, providing onsite yoga for under-served communities such as veterans, people touched by cancer, addiction, physical challenges and youth. Classes have been at no charge to the participants. We provide stipends for our teachers, who are independent contractors and very passionate about helping people be as well as possible. You Call This Yoga relies on business sponsors, grants and individual donors to fund our healing initiatives. The website and social media channels offer several modes of learning, such as live and pre-recorded classes, practice tips, podcasts, blogs and articles.
Before the pandemic, we were positioned to offer 24 weekly classes in our 3 month class series, have our major fundraiser, YogaFest NC in March and an annual event sponsored by a yoga studio in August.
Since the pandemic began, our events have been cancelled. We pivoted to online festivals and weekly classes that were at no charge. By being virtual, we have formed relationships with teachers from around the world. The festivals included volunteer teachers as a test for building a base of practitioners that would hopefully utilize our free weekly classes. The teachers of the weekly classes receive stipends, which is the main focus of our fundraising efforts.
We are growing into programs that are connected to social justice, Spanish speaking students and diverse healing practices. You Call This Yoga plans to forge ahead and offer 15 free classes in our weekly Winter 2021 series, and keep enhancing well-being worldwide.