Meet Clarissa Cota | Yoga Guide & President at My Comunidad Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clarissa Cota and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clarissa, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My idea to open up a nonprofit yoga space and started about a year before the pandemic. In my journey as a yoga student and teacher, I noticed there was little to no representation of brown and black communities in a lot of the spaces I attended and started wonder why. I reflected on when I was a student and how I had to sign up for Groupons and new student deals to be able to access yoga classes. Here was this beautiful resource and life style (yoga) but it only seem to be accessible to certain communities. My mission in starting My Comunidad Foundation (MCF) was to bring yoga to underserved communities; for me this also meant being inclusive of all people regardless of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, or any other background.

At the end of 2021, I was able to establish MCF as a nonprofit organization 501c3. In August 2022, we opened a studio space in the city of Paramount California (know as part of the South East LA area). MCF currently offers low cost and scholarship based classes. The name, My Comunidad was inspired by my Spanglish roots and was also sparked by building community and healing from community and learning that this was a significant component of yoga.

I specifically have a passion for working with and sharing yoga with kids and youth. MCF offers FREE kids yoga classes. I find it’s important valuable for kids to have access to resources to cope with obstacles they may face. In teaching kids classes, I find the kids that come start to gain more confidence and acceptance of who they are.

In the other classes that MCF offers you will experience an embodied practice that honors the roots of yoga.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My name is Clarissa Cota my pronouns are she/her. I want to acknowledge that I reside on tongva (know today is Long Beach) and my ancestors come from the Pima people (Who came from what is known today as Arizona). I give this acknowledgment so that I can further connect with my roots.

Aside from running a start up nonprofit organization and guiding yoga classes, I also work as a supervisor at a private company, Verdugo Hills Autism Project (VHAP) who serves the special needs community. I’ve been working with the special needs community for over 15 years. In my role with VHAP, I support behavior therapists in working with children and young adults with special needs at school, home and in the community.

I got to where I am today with a lot of support from my friends and family. I earned a BS in Child Development and a MA in Psychology, as well many yoga teacher trainings, workshops and mentorships. My path to where I am now was not easy, I went through a lot of financial struggle, failed ideas and mental health ups down, but I would not trade my experience because I learned so much along the way and have so much wisdom and experience to share with people from it.

My experience and background has taught me so much about working with different abilities and most importantly finding patience and magic in the smallest moments. My work brings me joy and purpose and now with the nonprofit I am able to merge the yogic lifestyle in all that do. I feel my background and experience comes together in so many ways that I may not even realize, this what I would want people/the world to know about me 🙂

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I feel like everyone is my best friend lol. But if one of my friends were staying for a week I would give them the full LA experience! Disclaimer: I’ll probably recommend a lot of things in Long Beach because that’s where I currently live 😊We would start the week off first going to brunch to catch up I would give them a couple of options which would include: Ubuntu in Long Beach or Poppy and Rose in DTLA, At brunch I would ask them if there’s anything specific they would want to do so that we can plan out our week. Our week would also include 1-2 hikes (Probably Portuguese Bend in Palos Verdes and a hike at the Griffith park observatory), a trip to the beach (Depending on the weather this would lounging at the beach with a picnic or taking a nice long walk at the beach). Dinner spots I would like to hit would definitely be Open Sesame in Long Beach and depending on if they wanted a specific type of cuisine I can probably offer them a lot of different options. My experience growing up in LA and moving around a lot has given me a lot of insight and experiences that I am grateful for it so I feel like I would be a great LA tour guide.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I don’t think I can credit one person or book. But if have to pick one it probably would be Sonia Sumar the Founder of Yoga for the Special Child. And if I get any more people I also want to credit Susana Barkataki who I am currently finishing up my 300 hour yoga teacher training with and Linda Lopes who is my mentor in the training.

Website: Mycomuunidad.org

Instagram: My Comunidad Foundation

Linkedin: Clarissa Cota

Facebook: My Comunidad

Other: My personal accounts are IG: @claircota FB: Clarissa Cota

Image Credits
Marnin Abad