Amazing news! We’ve been awarded £12,479 of funding from Sport England to support our outreach and inclusion work.
This funding will help us promote Park Yoga to people who traditionally have less access to physical activities such as yoga. Sport England has identified these priority groups, and our work will involve promoting Park Yoga to people from low-income households, older adults (55+), global majority groups, disabled people, people living with long-term health conditions and parents with young children.
We’ll be doing this by:
• Developing our instructor training to focus on delivering the most inclusive yoga sessions we can;
• Delivering taster sessions in familiar community settings;
• Building relationships with health referral partners and community groups;
• Activating a marketing campaign featuring case studies from our target group participants;
• Exploring how and if we can safely offer sessions to pregnant women in years to come.
Cathi Farrer-Mitchell, Director of Park Yoga, said: “At a time of significant financial pressure, Park Yoga offers a free, accessible physical activity within local communities. Our participants consistently describe our sessions as inclusive, welcoming, friendly, and non-judgemental, and our sessions are delivered at a diverse ability level so people of all backgrounds and capabilities feel comfortable taking part. This is reflected in our 2025 evaluation survey, revealing 31% of participants had never or infrequently tried yoga before.”
“Despite this success, we recognise the need to do more to address health inequalities and reach the least active communities in the country. National data shows that inactivity rates are higher among disabled people (37%), those with long-term health conditions (40%), people living in the most deprived areas (31%), women (61% active compared to 66% of men), and people from Black, Asian, Chinese and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are up to 10% less active than White British adults. These groups may not perceive Park Yoga to be suitable for them, so targeted action is needed to overcome this.”
This work has been informed by focus groups with our participants, as well as disabled people who’ve never attended a Park Yoga session thanks to support from the Activity Alliance.
Thanks to everyone who plays the National Lottery games for your support.
