The Niroga Institute
Mission: The goal of Niroga’s work with young people, in particular, is to teach them a mind-body practice that will help them manage stress, build self-control, make better decisions about high risk and impulsive behaviors, and perform better in school.
Approach: During Full Circle Fund’s two-year engagement with Niroga, team members helped the organization raise public awareness about its work and build needed fundraising capacity. Full Circle Fund participated as a one-third funder of a pilot program at El Cerrito High in Richmond, where 470 students engaged in yoga and mindfulness exercises right in the classroom for 15-20 minutes, three mornings a week.
Impact:
The research conducted in the pilot program at El Cerrito High in Richmond demonstrated the validity and cost-effectiveness of this approach generally and Niroga’s innovative classroom-based protocol, called Life Corps, in particular.
The data gathered during this pilot was subsequently published in the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and presented at a major conference in Los Angeles in March 2009.
A plan was designed to grow online individual donor base.
Full Circle Fund Members helped produce a seven-minute video showing the work they do with at-risk youth. A matching grant allowed Niroga to hire a filmmaker to produce the video at a discounted rate.
As a result of Niroga’s partnership with Full Circle Fund, this organization has been able to make valuable connections in the business and non-profit worlds while adding capacity in the areas of public relations and resource development.
“What Full Circle Fund supported in this last year was unique in the country. We worked with kids in classrooms over a semester. Data found we were able to reduce stress and increase self-control. The impact of this on education is major.” - Bidyut Bose, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Niroga