Charlinda Evans and Karen Chilman are two Jennings County High School teachers with hearts for those who have experienced traumatic pasts. Since June 2018, they’ve offered Perceptions Yoga as a personalized therapeutic class at low to no cost for the community.
The organization, according to its website, “provides underserved populations, including our local community of Jennings County, Indiana, with the opportunity to pursue wellness, self-care, wholeness, and healing through the practices of yoga, mindfulness and art.”
The classes offered include case-by-case yoga therapy, training mindfulness for teens, weekly classes that cost $5 and even free yoga classes to teachers.
Evans and Chilman are bridging their careers and the community.
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Jennings County School Corp. has allowed Perceptions Yoga, a nonprofit organization, to use the education center as a base for its classes. There are weekly classes at 6 p.m. Mondays, 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 9:30 a.m. Saturdays.
Perceptions provides basic groundwork for working through everyday stress.
“I see the affect art has on students. It keeps them in school,” Chilman said.
Through her work, Chilman said she sees the underlying issue of childhood trauma. She said she is trying to stop the continuous loop of trauma.
Evans said Perceptions Yoga is important.
“This is the vehicle I’m using to accomplish goals in the community. You have to make your own part of the world; you can change that,” she said.
The five-year goal for Perceptions Yoga is to expand and provide state-of-the-art trauma training.
“I would like to see expansion on the trauma help. PTSD stress, offering training to schools and organizations,” Evans said.
Evans and Chilman said that they want to provide help from all angles.
Jennings County needs helping hands. I have seen first-hand what trauma left untreated, unnoticed and ignored can do to a family.
We need to focus on the root of the problems to properly fix them.
Let’s make our community stronger by helping those in need.
Gracie Miller is a senior at Jennings County High School.
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To learn more about Perceptions Yoga, go online at perceptionsyoga.org.
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