WARRIORS AT EASE

● To make Warriors at Ease training more accessible to veterans, service members, and military spouses
● Establish high-quality and consistent Warriors at Ease yoga and meditation classes in veteran and military communities
● Create opportunities for profound personal growth and professional development for warriors, military spouses and care providers

• Updating our teacher training curriculum and launching it on a world-class, online teaching portal in fall of 2017 in partnership with Yoga International
• Expanding Train, Teach & Transform to four new regions in 2018
• Broadening the scope of our offerings at the United States Military Academy
• Expanding our mind-body programs to more colleges, universities, and service academies
• Partnering with major research organizations to study the effects of using yoga and meditation as adjunct therapy for service members and veterans with sleep issues, chronic pain, PTSD, and other health concerns
• Developing Warriors at Ease Kids, an emerging mind-body program specifically for children of service members and veterans
• Working with leaders in DoD to integrate Warriors at Ease teachers into pain management clinics, unit PT programs, and other areas where our teachers can be effective
• Working with Department of Veterans Affairs to fill newly dedicated positions for “Yoga Instructors" in the VA system with Warriors at Ease teachers
• Establishing Warriors at Ease affiliates in rural areas where veterans may be underserved

We continue to strengthen ongoing programs and have positioned ourselves to launch Train, Teach and Transform in additional regions in 2018. We are doing this by:
● Streamlining data collection and automating reporting procedures for regional outreach classes in order to more effectively measure our impact and improve programming.
● Nurturing ongoing relationships and cultivating new partnerships with other veteran service organizations, veteran-friendly employers and universities, as well as representatives inside the Department of Veterans Administration and Department of Defense.
● Promoting ongoing training and outreach classes in current Train, Teach & Transform regions so more veterans, service members, military spouses, and caretakers are aware of these valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth.
● Identifying and establishing affiliate centers and studios to be hosts for training and outreach classes.
● Identifying and training future Regional Program Coordinators and Program Managers for Train to Teach and also Teach to Transform .

The achievements of our esteemed faculty and highly trained teachers are exponential and have helped us to advanced our long-term goal of offering Warriors at Ease yoga and meditation classes across the full spectrum of health care on military installations and in VA facilities. Additionally, our organization has accomplished the following in 2016 and 2017:
• Served on The George W. Bush Institute's Health and Wellbeing Task Force and participated in Stand-To, A National Veterans Convening in Washington, D.C. in June 2017, where we helped outline key priorities and created an action plan to drive improved outcomes for veterans and their families
• Launched Train, Teach & Transform in January 2017. This program provides free yoga classes across four key regions as well as teacher training scholarships to injured service members, veterans, and military spouses funded through a $100K grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation
• Developed and successfully launched a pioneering online training in 2016 called “Teaching Yoga to Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma," funded through at $24K grant from the Disabled Veterans National Foundation
• Offered yoga and meditation retreats in four key regions for service members, veterans, spouses, and caretakers in partnership with other veteran service organizations and Military Family Readiness Groups, funded by the Walter Reed Foundation, private companies, and individual donors
• Expanded an innovative mind-body program for veteran college students in partnership with Manhattan College and Sivananda Yoga Ashram
• Participated in a national symposium of subject matter experts that resulted in a publication released by the Yoga Service Council called “Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans," a book distributed nationally to support the integration of yoga and meditation into VA facilities