Access before exclusivity
Wellness should meet people where they are—in schools, neighborhoods, workplaces and community spaces—not ask them to cross barriers to receive care.
Our story
Wellness is a right—not a luxury.
Yoga N Da Hood was born from lived experience, a love of community and a refusal to accept that healing should be inaccessible.
From Oak Cliff to the world
A practice became a pathway home.
Founder Ebony Smith found yoga while searching for healing in her own life. The practice offered possibility, but the wellness spaces she entered rarely reflected her culture, her community or the people she loved.
So in 2014, Ebony created the space she wished had existed: one where people could arrive exactly as they were, where care was culturally responsive, and where breath and movement belonged beyond boutique studio walls.
What began in Dallas neighborhoods grew into school programs, after-school social-emotional learning, community classes, professional development, global teaching and a registered yoga school.
Meet the founder
Ebony Smith leads from lived experience.
Ebony is an educator, author, speaker and wellness leader whose work sits at the meeting place of education, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed care and embodied practice.
Her approach is grounded in a simple belief: people do not need to be fixed before they deserve support. They need spaces where they are seen, given choices and invited back into relationship with their own breath, bodies and brilliance.
Whether she is guiding a room of children, supporting exhausted educators, training yoga teachers or speaking on an international stage, Ebony brings the same combination of rigor, warmth and cultural awareness.
Invite Ebony to work with you
The heart of the work
We bring the practice to the people.
“We do not ask communities to come find healing. We carry healing to where people already live, learn, work and gather.”
What guides us
Care is not one-size-fits-all.
Every offering is built around access, agency and belonging—because meaningful wellness begins when people feel safe enough to be fully human.
Culture is part of the practice
We honor identity, language, music, lived experience and community wisdom. People should not have to leave themselves at the door to feel well.
Choice creates safety
Our trauma-informed approach centers invitation, agency and dignity. Every person remains the expert on their own body and experience.
Rest supports change
Rest is not a reward for exhaustion. It is a practice that helps educators, young people and communities build capacity for lasting change.
The journey continues
Local roots. Expanding reach. The same purpose.
Yoga N Da Hood begins
A community-rooted vision takes shape in Dallas: make yoga, mindfulness and healing practices accessible to people too often left outside traditional wellness spaces.
From classes to community systems
The work expands into schools, after-school SEL, educator wellness, youth programs, organizational partnerships and large-scale community experiences.
Training the people who hold space
Through continuing education and a registered yoga school, Ebony equips teachers and wellness leaders to guide with more care, confidence and cultural awareness.
A global vision for access
Initiatives including Yoga di Desa carry the mission forward by investing in local leaders who can build sustainable wellness within their own communities.
Experience rooted in service
Education meets embodied practice.
Ebony brings professional training, classroom experience and more than a decade of community-based leadership to every room she enters.
Experienced registered yoga teacher
Yoga Alliance continuing education provider
Founder of a registered yoga school
Master of Science in Mindfulness Studies
Texas educatorTeacher of the YearTEDx speakerHarvard presenterPublished author
Why this matters
Representation changes who believes wellness is for them.
When young people see themselves reflected in wellness, educators receive care as well as training, and communities help shape the experience, a class becomes more than a class. It becomes a doorway to belonging, self-trust and possibility.
See the impactWorked with, presented at, or featured by
Trusted across classrooms, communities and national platforms.
Let’s build something meaningful
Bring culturally responsive wellness to your community.
Partner with Yoga N Da Hood for school programs, organizational wellness, speaking, workshops or community experiences.
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