Mandela Yoga Project, based in Cambridge, MA, offers an evidence-based group practice of mindful movement paired with breathing as an integrative health intervention to treat the racially traumatized nervous systems of people of color. Mandela Yoga is peer-led, which allows participants of color to receive the benefits of group practice. Mandela Yoga has received both a Targeted Research Funding award and an Equity Capacity Building Grant. With this funding they are piloting a peer-led intervention at a Federally Qualified Health Center. 

Mandela Yoga centers people of color as healers of the stressors that result in chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension that disproportionately affect Black people. The team will document the efficacy of Mandela Yoga intervention’s impact on eight health indicators (blood pressure, HbA1C, heart attacks, ED visits, hospitalizations, BMI, use of GLP1 inhibitors, and quality of life), using Accountable Care Organization (ACO) baseline and post-intervention data in partnership with a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that predominantly serves the immigrant community. The partnering ACO finances 23 FQHCs that together serve 200,000 Medicaid and Medicare patients in MA and is interested in the intervention’s potential to improve health outcomes while reducing total cost of care.