Santovas provides adjunct mental-health support to youth in need in Quebec through our trauma-sensitive, mindfulness-based yoga and meditation programs
Our programs are offered in government-run facilities, public schools, and community organizations serving youth in urban and rural contexts.
WHAT WE DO
Santovas programs are inspired by trauma-sensitive yoga and trauma-sensitive mindfulness meditation.
We work closely with youth service providers, to provide yoga and mindfulness meditation programs in the spaces where youth live and learn.
Santovas facilitators have diverse yoga backgrounds, but they all teach Hatha yoga in our programs. Originating in India, Hatha yoga refers to the physical branch of yoga, which helps practitioners to cultivate and sustain mental and physical health, by practising a range of physical stretches and breathing exercises.
HOW WE STARTED
Santovas foundation was born out of one family’s belief in the benefits of yoga and meditation to meet the various challenges of today’s fast-paced world and its stressors.
Tatiana Santos and Mantas Manovas have personally experienced the benefits of these tools to help navigate work-related stress, and as parents of three young children. Having woven mindfulness into their family life, Tatiana and Mantas want to offer young people opportunities to experience the benefits of yoga and mindfulness. Their hope is that Santovas Foundation program facilitators will provide youth most in need with opportunities to acquire tools and skills they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.