Veterans Yoga Project - Bob Woodruff Foundation

Veterans Yoga Project

Mindful Resilience for Compassion Fatigue

Veterans Yoga Project (VYP) is dedicated to supporting recovery and resilience among veterans, active duty military members, families, and communities. During the pandemic, VYP is supporting veterans as well as the caregivers and clinicians who struggle with compassion fatigue, or “burn out,” as they care for veterans. This NFL-BWF Healthy Lifestyle and Creating Community (HLCC) grant will fund Veterans Yoga Project to provide three 15-person cohorts (45 individuals total) with the 7-week, Mindful Resilience for Compassion Fatigue (MRCF) program. MRCF is a new program, which VYP implemented in June 2020, for veterans and caregivers of veterans. The class meets weekly over Zoom for 7 weeks and focuses on the tools of self care and the processing of trauma, as well as witnessed trauma of others. In addition to live sessions, students are given access to a six-module eLearning program, which VYP released in 2020. VYP designed MRCF specifically to take the mindful resilience work that is done on the yoga mat and incorporate it more fully into the daily lives of these individuals.