Yoga for All Abilities
A Mission Moment Share by Humble Haven’s Founder, Suzanne Burns
“Flashback to some Saturday in 2014…
I was newly married and attending a Special Olympics basketball game with my husband Steve who was coaching. He had been coaching Special Olympics basketball, softball, and bowling since before I had met him in 2009. Tagging along to his Saturday morning practices and games had become part of our regular weekend routine. Steve was lucky to have had a pretty consistent group of athletes that he coached in various sports year after year which gave us a chance to get to know them and them the chance to get to know us quite well. The athletes and their families had been with me, curious and encouraging, through my first 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2012 and 2013 and had slowly watched me take on yoga as my full time gig.
A few families from Special Olympics started asking…could I and would I teach their children yoga? My answer was a resounding yes and I also wanted to learn more about ways to connect and lead individuals with disabilities. That’s when I discovered the program Yoga for the Special Child, which specializes in constructing one-on-one and small group classes for both children (from 4 months old) to adults with varying abilities.
For the past 9 years I’ve been teaching yoga to children, teens, and adults with disabilities in their living rooms, in office buildings and community spaces, and at Humble Haven’s studio. At its foundation, yoga teaches compassion and shared, unquestionable belonging. I think it's fair to say that as a society we do not uphold a sense of unquestionable belonging in all of the spaces and places we reside, and consequently our community spaces do not end up being representative of the actual community that lives and breathes around us.
According to the 2022 Census, 11% of Richmond residents under the age of 65 years old are living with a disability. As someone who is in the business of creating space for community to gather day in and day out, it is impossible not to see that our Richmond community members with disabilities are underrepresented in the studio space.
My vision is that Humble Haven can be a space that represents the Richmond community, fully. Each day, each week, each year forward we have been and will continue to take steps towards this vision. There will be missteps and recalibrations as all transformational work requires, and just as the yoga practice teaches us, we will begin again…and again…and again.
We are looking forward to sharing our first yoga series for individuals with diverse abilities - a series curated for adults (ages 16+) with developmental disabilities led by Jennie Ray Hart starting in September. Our goal is for this series to transform into a regular, ongoing class while adding on additional classes over time.
What is available in a specially curated series such as this, is a place to mediate, move, and self affirm while surrounded by a group of individuals walking a similar path.
What is available by inviting a series such as this one into the Humble Haven space is a small step towards cultivating a community that unquestionably welcomes all abilities just as the yoga practice teaches.”