Hands to Heart Center - Yoga for the People

Solid, Intentional, Organized, Powerful & Empowering: Impactful & Impressive.

A terrific organization that provides access to this healing practice for adults and students in communities/neighborhoods most affected by stressful events. I've seen Susan Lovett present to professionals/teachers at major conferences, to students and teachers and administrators in our local school district and to clinicians who provide services to students in the school and her presentations are so clear and so calming. Everyone can learn so much about immediate strategies to use in and outside the classroom. Staff and students really respond to it.

It is an amazing organization that utilizes the talents of yoga instructors who want to share their practices to others in need at little to no cost! This organization is so responsive to anyone who calls seeking their services. They are so professional. I highly recommend them!

Seeing the impact HTHC has on the communities they serve is inspiring. The inclusiveness of their service offerings and dedication of their volunteers is commendable. We're lucky to have them here in Boston.

I am a Social Worker specializing in the field of trauma and admire and respect the important work Hands to Heart Center continues to do to advance Yoga as an effective resource for people affected by traumatic stress.

Hands to Heart Center - Yoga for the People finds great instructors for workshops at my public library branch. They are qualified, well-trained, and caring. Our yoga series from HTHC has become one our most popular adult programs here. Most of our students would not have regular access to yoga without them. But now they are enthusiastic and motivated yogis. Thank you, Hands to Heart Center - Yoga for the People!

I work at an urban afterschool program and HTHC has provided our students with an extremely low-cost option to experience yoga. We've had 4-14 year-olds take the series and they loved it!

Our program is a short-term counseling and intervention program that serves students who have violated the most serious offenses of the Boston Public Schools Code of Conduct. The program, an alternative to out of school suspensions, provides individual and group-counseling services, substance abuse education and treatment, restorative circles, and academics. The curricula includes social-emotional skill building, violence prevention and conflict resolution education that increases students' ability to assess risk, consider potential consequences, and improve decision-making.

Hands to Heart Center is one of our partners and they come to our program on a weekly basis to teach students Yoga and how to bring mindfulness into their lives. Our students and staff love having them and have seen the incredible benefit that the classes bring to the students after the session. Our bus driver has mentioned how more centered and peaceful students go on the bus home after the class. ;)

I have been volunteering with HTHC for about 8 months. I am honored to be one of their many volunteer yoga teachers, because HTHC is providing many communities in need an outlet for moving, gathering and healing. Thank you HTHC.

I am a recent volunteer at HTHC and I have observed several classes where I have witnessed the joy and gratitude of the students attending the class. I am grateful for this organization to bring yoga to communities that have not easy access to practice and learn about yoga.

I am humbled and honored to be a volunteer teacher with Hands to Heart Center-Yoga for the People (HTHC) in Boston, MA. I personally found yoga when I was at a crossroads in my life over 10 years ago, after the unexpected and untimely death of my husband. Since that time, my practice has grown and deepened, carrying me through the years of raising my 3 daughters alone, and moving forward in my life. During the course of yoga teacher training, I began to explore opportunities to share the bountiful benefits of yoga with others. I discovered HTHC and quickly applied to volunteer. I now teach a weekly class at the public library in Mattapan, one of Boston's underserved communities. HTHC has introduced me to some amazing nonprofit and community organizations that serve our city’s most vulnerable residents. I tailor classes to the needs of students, meeting them where they are, and the response has been highly favorable. I am always learning from the HTHC participants, as I am guided by their needs and stories. The meaning of yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind – it helps with anxiety, depression, stress and so many physical ailments. However, for many, yoga is financially out of reach, at $15 to $20 per class. HTHC makes yoga accessible to many those who otherwise would not have such an opportunity. It’s a young, grassroots organization that is has the potential to change and improve the lives of those it touches. As a Boston resident, teaching with HTHC allows me to give back to my hometown in a very meaningful way.

HTHC is an excellent organization that serves free yoga to communities and areas that may not easily have access to practice. It’s been a great priveledge to volunteer and spread the joy of yoga.

Hands to Heart Center is a fantastic organization that helps the instructors every bit as much as it helps the participants. I have truly enjoyed getting to know people with different backgrounds and experiences and love the fact that we can all bond over a common interest in yoga!

HTHC has enabled me, as a community yoga teacher, to share my love of yoga with others and to learn from a broad array of students and teachers. Its mission of expanding access to yoga and increasing yoga's inclusivity is more important now than ever. This organization provides direct benefits to the community and increases our opportunity to connect meaningfully with our fellow Boston area residents.

Hands to Heart Center-Yoga for the People is a revolution for love and respect and caring and self care for ALL people. Its a labor of love, from the director to the people of the city of Boston. Hands to Heart Center-Yoga for the People is unraveling the social mistruth that money = deserving of self love and access to wellness and body, mind, and spirit one class at a time! Every class is planned with gentle attention to details that bring beauty and support to all, from the organization of props set out before participants arrive to colorful journals to record your experience or feedback. Everyone involved with Hands to Heart Center is touched with the energy of, "no matter what, you have worth".

Hands to Heart Center is what all yoga should be: an authentic space where everyone is welcome, regardless of background, physical ability, or experience, where body, mind, and spirit are nurtured and supported, and where true connection is possible. I am so grateful to be a part of this community, and look forward to watching it grow and thrive.

My opportunity to teach with Hands to Heart changed my path as a yoga teacher. Hands to Heart exposed to me the vast population of people that yoga is inaccessible to. HTHC provides safe teaching situations for teachers to share their love and knowledge for the benefit of others. Working for HTHC has driven me to become a more compassionate, skilled teacher so that I can continue to share yoga with all.

Though I am a new volunteer with HTHC, I am so happy to be a part of it's beautiful mission. I am thrilled to be able to share light and joy with communities who are especially in need. It is a wonderful, well executed concept.

I have been volunteering with Hands to Heart Center for almost a year now and my experience with this organization has contributed so much to my personal growth and to the well-being of my community. Hands to Heart Center cares deeply about the populations they serve and offer yoga and teachers who emphasize inclusivity and accessibility. I have formed amazing connections with students and together we have created classes that best serve everyone involved.

HTHC does amazing work and I feel privileged to be a part of the organisation!

I am a volunteer yoga teacher for Hands to Heart and I can't say enough about how great this organization is. It's a privilege to be a part of it!

I have the great privilege of volunteering as a community yoga teacher with Hands to Heart Center, and cannot say enough positive things about this phenomenal organization. Hands to Heart Center is unique in that it aims to share the amazing benefits of yoga and meditation with those who need it most. We often think of yoga as a "rich sport," a privilege for those of us that can afford the $100 studio memberships or designer-brand yoga clothes. The benefits of mindfulness should not be a secret that is exclusively shared amongst the privileged and should, instead, be available to everyone. This is exactly what Hands to Heart Center accomplishes! By providing classes in our local schools, shelters, churches, and parks, Hands to Heart Center allows everyone, regardless of the color of their skin, gender, background, or neighborhood, to find a little peace through the practice of yoga and meditation.

After I became a certified yoga instructor, I had offers to work at some of the best studios in Boston. Instead, I chose to volunteer my time with Hands to Heart Center. Choosing to spend my time with an organization that effects such tangible change in my community has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined, and I feel truly honored to towards such an important goal with my fellow Activist-Yogi's.

I am a volunteer teacher for Hands to Heart Center and I am overwhelmed by the amazing work they do. As a teacher, I get to work hands on with the people who come to our free classes and they are all so lovely and grateful to have us there offering a free service that brings them some peace and mindfulness. I have taught homeless children, people fighting mental illnesses, and refugees with this organization. Every group I teach warms my heart and makes me love what I do.

This is a wonderful nonprofit with incredibly dedicated and giving volunteers who are spreading the yoga love to those who really need it in the city!

HTHC is helping to heal this city. In a few short years, hundreds (thousands?) of yoga classes have been provided to shelters, schools, health centers, community programs, and many places where yoga hadn't been before. We are all better for its service to Boston and the surrounding area.

Hands to Heart Center is non-profit organization with a mission to make the practice of yoga accecible to underprilidged communities in Boston.

I love volunteering for this organization because I believe that yoga can bring healing to our lives. Underserved communities can't afford yoga classes, but need them most.

I am so proud to be able contribute to this mission with Hands to Heart Center.

Hands to Heart Center offers experiences of peace and wellbeing and empowers participants to create these for themselves through the practice of yoga. I have loved volunteering as a teacher and feel the benefits are truly reaching people who might not otherwise be able to access the power of yoga. The organization is lovingly, thoughtfully run by a very small and tireless staff who make the most of every minute and every dollar, along with a fleet of volunteer teachers like myself.

As yogis we are called on to perform Seva (the Sanskrit word for service), giving our time and energy to the greater good. Hands to Hart provides me with the perfect opportunity to give back to the community. I feel strongly that all people should be able to access the many benefits of yoga regardless of income. For those who face barriers, whether due to poverty, abuse, disability, age, isolation or other life challenges, yoga can truly be a life saver. I am blessed to have found an organization that feels the same way.

I have been volunteering with HTHC for about a year. The experience has been incredibly rewarding in every aspect. I've been able to work with different populations in different settings. I feel honored to be able to work with the students and show them such a powerful tool. HTHC is fulfilling a need and serving the community in such a beneficial way.

HTHC is such an amazing service provider, and a wonderful organization through which I volunteer my time to the community. They put just as much into supporting the volunteers and expanding the reach of services as they do into the logistics around providing yoga to the people.

As a resident service coordinator at a housing development in Boston, I was thrilled to learn about Susan Lovett and Hands to Heart Center through an article in Boston Magazine. Residents had been requesting an on-site health and wellness programs, but many were out of our reach financially. HTHC has been a godsend; it operates on a simple concept, yet it is incredibly impactful and has brought the practice of yoga to residents who have never had the opportunity to experience it. Exposure to the concepts of yoga has inspired residents to make small, meaningful changes through incorporating mindfulness, gratitude, and relaxation techniques into their daily lives. Each of our instructors has their own style, but they all possess patience, grace, compassion, and passion for what they do in bringing "yoga to the people."

Volunteering with HTHC has been a remarkable experience! It has allowed me both to connect with communities that would not otherwise have access to yoga, and to grow as a yoga teacher.

HTHC is well organized and has a significant positive impact on the populations it serves. Volunteering for HTHC has been a great experience.

I love everything about Hands To Heart Center - it's mission, it's way to create safe spaces in our communities and foster connection, the love we get to share, the outstanding support for us volunteers, the amazing people I have gotten to know and the beautiful moments I have shared with students and teachers alike. It is a privilege to be part of such a wonderful organization.

HTHC is an amazing organization providing a wonderful service to marginalized populations. Susans leadership is inspiring, organized, and passionate. Not only does this wonderful community provide yoga to those who may not have regular access to it, but HTHC also creates opportunities for volunteers to become better teachers (such as the free Trauma Informed Yoga workshop, and more). Can't say enough good things about it, and I feel so grateful to be a part of it!

This is a young organization with depth, wisdom and soul. Susan has the smarts of an organizer and the creativity of an artist to imagine the possibilities of linking committed yoga teachers with community based organizations seeking new ways to reach and motivate their clients and members. This organization is still very much in a formative space and learning to walk, even as it makes a meaningful difference every day of the week. HtHC has huge potential and possibilities, not just in Boston and Greater Boston, but as a model for communities across the nation. What a way to demolish the caricatures of yoga. Yoga is for the people!

It has been a wonderful experience volunteering and teaching yoga. Susan the founder is an absolutely lovely woman. The volunteers had a restorative teacher training and it was great. All the volunteers connected and where very enthusiastic and warm. The Roxbury Center is such a nice and interesting place for people to connect, share and volunteer.

Hands to Heart Center is an amazing way to channel Boston's yoga teaching talents towards the greater good!

As a social worker and a new yoga teacher, I have dreamed of bringing the gifts of yoga to vulnerable folks struggling with poverty and trauma, for whom the benefits of yoga are innumerable. Joining Hands to Heart Center has enabled me to make this dream a reality! The leadership team organize the classes so well, so that I can show up at a place I've never been before knowing that the materials are there, the participants are excited, and I can dive into teaching a class. I would love more opportunities to get together with other HTHC volunteers and learn and grow together, but I plan to continue my involvement in this incredible organization.

I am so grateful to have the chance to work with HTHC. Not only are they introducing me to amazing people in the community but they also offer several different trainings to make me an even better healer in the community. The work they do is so valuable to empowering individuals and truly making the world a better place.

Teaching yoga with HTHC has been an amazing experience and has allowed me to connect with the community in such a beautiful way!

This is such a wonderful organization led by such a compassionate and caring individual, Susan Lovett. I have been volunteering through HTHC since 2014, leading yoga classes for at-risk children at a charter school in Dorchester. Teaching them about breathing techniques and showing them the tools to use when feeling overwhelmed or stressed goes hand in hand with the physical practice of yoga, and the kids look forward to every class. HTHC does so much to bring yoga to communities where access to it may be limited or unattainable, and it brings me such happiness to be able to share my love of yoga with others.

In very simple terms, HTHC-Yoga For The People takes the qualities of HOPE, LOVE, COMMUNITY, KINDNESS, JUSTICE, CONNECTION, and COMMITMENT and makes them palpable on our city streets and changes hearts and lives each day. I have experienced this first hand.
Hands To Heart Center-Yoga For The People is gently shaking the world.

Hands to Heart Center is a positive influence in the lives of my students. Most of them have experienced trauma of some kind. The majority live in poverty, some are homeless. It's a challenge to get them focused and calm, ready to learn. I noticed improvements in their attention span after only a few classes. They also act out less and and follow directions better. My observations are strictly anecdotal. I'd be very interested to hear other educators' experiences.

What an amazing non-profit! Yoga is the ultimate healer. Susan has brought iggy this healing gift to people in all neighborhoods that otherwise wouldn't have access. The gratitude of the volunteers and those who partake is a beautiful thing to witness.