commitments of change

Dear Heatwise Family,

I created Heatwise with the sole purpose of helping people feel good. This included all people regardless of age, sex, body type, gender, race or religion. I went out of my way to try and create spaces that are welcoming and warm, inviting and homey. But I recognize now that regardless of my intentions, I have failed in addressing racial inequalities in our studios and our classes.

To be blunt: we have a lot of work to do.

I am committed to taking the necessary steps and creating an organization that is actively anti-racist; I am committed to establishing practices that demonstrate meaningful change in the fight against systemic racism; I am determined to look at myself, and this business, in the mirror and make changes so as to truly embody our mission to help all people feel comfortable, accepted, welcome -- good.

Today is the beginning of that change, not the end. This reflection and change will not happen overnight. But we believe in putting action behind our words. To that end, we want to take immediate action to help support the Black Lives Matter movement and, effective immediately, will be moving forward with the following:

• Creating a special Video on Demand class; 100% of proceeds going to The Loveland Foundation
• Pledging 25% of all June e-commerce sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Donating class proceeds to our instructor’s nonprofit or charity of choice on a rotating, monthly basis

Long-term, we are committed to finding ways to bring our positive, feel-good energy to those who are often conspicuously absent from our studios. To that end, we will be instituting the following:

• Partnering with a (to-be-named) non-profit organization that will allow us to introduce yoga to youth in under-served Brooklyn communities
• Sponsoring a Black, Indigenous or Person of Color for our annual 200-Hour Teacher Training
• Sponsoring a Black, Indigenous or Person of Color for our Heatwise Mentorship
• Mandating diversity and inclusivity training for all Heatwise team members
• Engaging culture, diversity and inclusivity consultants to review our internal hiring and training practices
• Committing to proactively diversifying our employees and instructors
• Actively seeking out partnerships with organizations and vendors that are value-aligned and owned by Black, Indigenous and People of Color
• Providing transparent updates to our community as we do this work as well as providing an opportunity for discourse and feedback by reaching out to me directly, sam@heatwise-studio.com

I know this list isn’t enough. I know it’s just a beginning. But I promise to keep listening and learning, and I am determined to being a part of the solution and deeply committed to helping all people feel good.

In solidarity,

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