The One Yoga staff, board, and teaching community has made the difficult decision to not renew our lease at our current studio space on 26th Street. We will continue to meet our financial obligations on this current space through the end of October 2020, when our 5-year lease expires.
At first glance, this decision might be surprising and unsettling for some of us. It’s interesting how we create connections with spaces, especially spaces whose walls hold us closely and intimately in the realm of our practice. For many of us, One Yoga has been a home away from home for many years.
But One Yoga is not defined by a building. Rather, we are defined by our community and a shared intention to live peacefully and harmoniously with ourselves and others. The comfort and ease we experience at One Yoga is created through relationships and teachings, and you can count on those things to stay the same.
How we arrived at this decision
In a recent student survey, the majority of respondents spoke out against returning to in-studio classes in the foreseeable future due to the ongoing risk of contracting COVID-19. This position aligns with our organizational values and mission centered around health equity.
Meanwhile, our studio is empty, and we continue to submit rental payments of nearly $10,000 per month. Due to the financial impact of COVID-19, these payments are no longer sustainable or responsible.
In addition to the immediate need to find a more affordable space, a move aligns with the direction of the organization more broadly. In a 2019 strategic planning process, a team of hard-working staff, board members, teachers, and student volunteers developed a 5-year organizational plan that included a call to explore moving to a new location where we can better serve our mission. The plan envisions a studio space located in a more affordable South Minneapolis neighborhood with more abundant community partnerships and easy access for all.
Looking ahead: the transition to a new space
This is a challenging time for many small organizations and businesses in the Twin Cities, but we are choosing to see it as an opportunity to take time to regroup, strategize, and live more fully in our mission of improving health equity through yoga.
There are many exciting options for relocating, and we are already in exploratory discussions with prospective new partners and landlords. In the coming months we plan to engage our student community as well as prospective neighborhoods in the process of selecting and establishing a new yoga home. Our goal will be to get into a new South Minneapolis space as soon as it is safe to practice indoors again. Stay tuned for opportunities to learn about and weigh in on this process.
One Yoga is still here for you
We know our yoga practice matters now more than ever. Through yoga we calm our nervous systems, tune in more deeply to our thoughts and emotions, and cultivate present-moment awareness. In doing so, we become better prepared to meet these challenging and uncertain times in a skillful way.
One Yoga is here for you to provide thoughtful and relevant programming at this time. We will continue to offer outdoor and virtual (live stream) yoga as we have been doing for the past several months. If you haven’t tried Yoga in the Park yet, and feel comfortable with this setting, we encourage you to try a class. Practicing together in-person while connected with nature is a soothing and liberating experience. Stay tuned for a special forthcoming fall workshop and event schedule.
A note about sliding-fee pricing options
We recognize that individuals, as well as organizations, are experiencing financial strain at this time. If this is the case for you, please reach out so we can help you find a pricing option that better fits within your budget.
Our streamlined sliding-fee application helps ensure that community members experiencing hardship can access our offerings as quickly as possible. Click here to complete the application and receive your sliding-fee rate for single class passes or monthly unlimited classes. The form allows you to select the rate that you are comfortable paying given the current financial circumstances of your household.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to James Orione, Program Director, at james@one-yoga.org with any questions about sliding-fee options.
We value your questions and input
If you have any questions regarding this new chapter for One Yoga, please reach out to us at info@one-yoga.org. A member of the One Yoga Leadership Team will reply to your email as soon as possible. We will also anonymously post frequently asked questions and answers to our website in the near future.