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Founding Your Way
Hosted by Maggie Ward and Lucy Luneva, co-founders of Pearl + Light, Founding Your Way is a podcast exploring the human side of building something meaningful.
Pearl + Light is a small business and nonprofit consulting agency inspired by good people doing good things. They partner with organizations rooted in service, creativity, and community, and are passionate about helping spread awareness of the people and projects uplifting local communities.
This podcast is an extension of that mission.
Through honest conversations with founders, creatives, nonprofit leaders, and community builders, Founding Your Way shares the stories behind the work — what inspired people to begin, what challenges them, what keeps them going, and what it really looks like to build something of your own.
Rooted in Boston and shaped by the people creating impact within it, the podcast highlights the ideas, relationships, and communities that make meaningful work possible.
Founding Your Way
Community as Medicine: Jeffrey Thomas on Building The Mandela Yoga Project
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In the very first episode of Founding Your Way, Maggie sits down with Jeffrey Thomas, founder of The Mandela Yoga Project, to explore the deeply personal story behind the organization and its mission to make healing practices accessible to all.
Inspired by the life of Jeffrey’s sister, Sonya, The Mandela Yoga Project was created with a powerful mission: to empower communities impacted by the public health crisis of racism through the proven health and emotional wellbeing benefits of yoga.
The conversation covers systemic barriers in healthcare, the commercialization of yoga in the West, and Mandela Yoga's work partnering with federally qualified health centers to bring free, accessible yoga into underserved communities. Jeffrey also shares the realities of building a nonprofit, navigating funding, and working toward long-term systemic change.
Learn more: mandelayogaproject.org
Follow Mandela Yoga on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mandela-yoga-project-inc/posts/?feedView=all
Follow Mandela Yoga on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MandelaYogaProject
Connect with the hosts, Maggie & Lucy