Centering Youth Current Class Offerings

Department of Juvenile Justice - Regional Youth Detention Centers (RYDC)

Serving Clayton county, Dekalb county, Marietta, Rockdale county, and Atlanta, the RYDC is a juvenile detention center that oversees the incarceration of young people across the state of Georgia. Centering Youth has been leading Yoga and Mindfulness classes for youths at Regional Youth Detention Centers and Youth Development Campuses in the greater Atlanta area since 2014. In Georgia the detention of all juveniles is handled by the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and we work as a part of the mental health caseload contracted by the state of Georgia. To our knowledge these are the first Yoga and Mindfulness classes in any adult or juvenile prison/detention facility run by the state of Georgia, and we are pleased to have this opportunity. Our DJJ classes at Dekalb RYDC, Atlanta YDC, and Clayton RYDC are currently a part of a study, “A Trauma-Informed, Mindfulness-Based Yoga Intervention for Juvenile Justice-Invovled Youth (TIMBY)”. The study is being led by Ashli Owen-Smith at Georgia State University and is supported by a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant. Through this study and program, Centering Youth is excited to be working closely with David Emerson from the Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) on our protocol and training.