We want to better support and represent the Black and BAME communities at Yoga West. Like many in society we have been complacent and slow to move on racism. We’re sorry about this will take action to ensure all people feel comfortable practicing and working with us. We are committed to learning and growing as individuals and as a community.

Over the last week we have contacted BAME members of our community to better understand their perspective on how they feel at the studio and how they feel we operate. We have realised during this listening exercise that we have conflated being a friendly, tolerant and inclusive community with actively taking steps to fight racism and be anti racist. We will therefore take the following actions:

• Co-ordinate with other leading yoga studios to create a platform where Black and BAME teachers can share their experiences of racism and use this as platform to realise change
• Pro-actively increase the number of BAME staff and team members at Yoga West by interviewing all suitably-qualified BAME candidates for teaching and staff roles
• Provide training to all team members and teachers by professional anti-racism trainers
• Provide a paid forum for BAME teachers and staff to openly share their experience with and help guide their colleagues on their experience of racism
• Include anti racism training in the syllabus of Yoga West teacher trainings
• Create a scholarship place on all our future teacher trainings • Increase the number of community classes we already offer at Yoga West to make the studio more accessible to a diverse range of people
• Ensure our communication reflects and champions the diversity of the community we serve

We know there is more all of us can do and we are committed to doing more. We know there are many people in our community who better understand these challenges and we invite you to share your experience with us as part of a process of growing as individuals and becoming a more dynamic, inclusive, representative community.

Thank you

James and the Yoga West team