The Portland Yoga Project: Pandemic Support
Donation protected
When The Portland Yoga Project closed its doors on March 16, 2020 we knew we had a choice. We could batten down the hatches, slim down our schedule, cut teacher pay, and try to get out of the lease of 6,000 sq ft that we had just signed in January, before we had any idea what was coming in the year ahead.
Or we could take what we had built over the last year and half—a lively and generous community and a team of brilliant and dedicated teachers—and do everything we could imagine to give our students and our teachers what they deserve.
We chose the latter.
We did not do it alone. Our teachers stepped up to the challenge of creating meaningful experiences for our students whether they were alone in the studio in front of a screen, or at home, or in a half-built out new space with an inch of sawdust on the floor. Our students stuck with us, showing up to their practice while children and pets climbed on them and the laundry basket was just a few feet away.
Over the last year we have thanked you, our community, time and time again for showing up with your support, encouragement, and participation in our efforts to survive this pandemic. As a yoga studio, our highest expense has always been payroll. We believe that our teachers are the lifeblood of our business. Because of your loyalty, your patronage, and your commitment to your practice, our membership sales have covered the expenses of paying our teachers the living wage they deserve to the point that we have even been able to bring several teachers on as part-time employees so that they can receive benefits like PTO and paid parental leave.
But as many of you know, there are things about owning a business that only the people who run it really know, details that don’t make it into newsletters or social media posts. They are the details that only make it into the kind of blurb you put into the fundraiser that you’ve tried so hard to avoid.
The Portland Yoga Project has ongoing costs of rent and utilities, supplies, and technology. We also continue to do what we can to financially contribute to social justice issues both inside and beyond our business. We are ok. But we recognize that we are one small disaster away from having to batten down the hatches and make the kind of decisions we have tried everything we can to avoid. After a full year of pivot after pivot, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. There have been countless difficult choices to make over this last year and posting this fundraiser is one of the hardest. It is one kind of strength to steel yourself in the face of challenges. It is another strength entirely to let your soft side show. Here we are, practicing our softness. Vulnerability is never comfortable, but it is necessary.
We need your help to make it through what we hope is a final push through these next few months until we can start to open our doors in a more robust way.
There are three ways that you can contribute to make sure that The Portland Yoga Project lives to the see the day when that space reaches the vision we have for it—
Become a member! Seriously, our classes and teachers are so good.
Help us pay our rent by contributing to this fundraiser!
Share what you love about PYP with your friends!
As a business that teaches barre and yoga, we believe in the support and connection of bodies to their own agency and wisdom. As a business that is run by and primarily serves people with unearned privilege, we commit to actively making our space safer for everyone. We commit to elevating the behaviors and expectations of the yoga industry in whatever ways we can, including but not limited to: better teacher pay and benefits, justice and equity oriented political activism, financial and community support to underrepresented identities, community engagement and the sharing of our financial resources.
By contributing to the survival of The Portland Yoga Project, you are holding us accountable to these commitments.
Or we could take what we had built over the last year and half—a lively and generous community and a team of brilliant and dedicated teachers—and do everything we could imagine to give our students and our teachers what they deserve.
We chose the latter.
We did not do it alone. Our teachers stepped up to the challenge of creating meaningful experiences for our students whether they were alone in the studio in front of a screen, or at home, or in a half-built out new space with an inch of sawdust on the floor. Our students stuck with us, showing up to their practice while children and pets climbed on them and the laundry basket was just a few feet away.
Over the last year we have thanked you, our community, time and time again for showing up with your support, encouragement, and participation in our efforts to survive this pandemic. As a yoga studio, our highest expense has always been payroll. We believe that our teachers are the lifeblood of our business. Because of your loyalty, your patronage, and your commitment to your practice, our membership sales have covered the expenses of paying our teachers the living wage they deserve to the point that we have even been able to bring several teachers on as part-time employees so that they can receive benefits like PTO and paid parental leave.
But as many of you know, there are things about owning a business that only the people who run it really know, details that don’t make it into newsletters or social media posts. They are the details that only make it into the kind of blurb you put into the fundraiser that you’ve tried so hard to avoid.
The Portland Yoga Project has ongoing costs of rent and utilities, supplies, and technology. We also continue to do what we can to financially contribute to social justice issues both inside and beyond our business. We are ok. But we recognize that we are one small disaster away from having to batten down the hatches and make the kind of decisions we have tried everything we can to avoid. After a full year of pivot after pivot, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. There have been countless difficult choices to make over this last year and posting this fundraiser is one of the hardest. It is one kind of strength to steel yourself in the face of challenges. It is another strength entirely to let your soft side show. Here we are, practicing our softness. Vulnerability is never comfortable, but it is necessary.
We need your help to make it through what we hope is a final push through these next few months until we can start to open our doors in a more robust way.
There are three ways that you can contribute to make sure that The Portland Yoga Project lives to the see the day when that space reaches the vision we have for it—
Become a member! Seriously, our classes and teachers are so good.
Help us pay our rent by contributing to this fundraiser!
Share what you love about PYP with your friends!
As a business that teaches barre and yoga, we believe in the support and connection of bodies to their own agency and wisdom. As a business that is run by and primarily serves people with unearned privilege, we commit to actively making our space safer for everyone. We commit to elevating the behaviors and expectations of the yoga industry in whatever ways we can, including but not limited to: better teacher pay and benefits, justice and equity oriented political activism, financial and community support to underrepresented identities, community engagement and the sharing of our financial resources.
By contributing to the survival of The Portland Yoga Project, you are holding us accountable to these commitments.
Co-organizers (2)
The Portland Yoga Project
Organizer
Portland, ME
Jess Emilfarb
Co-organizer