Building Bridges: Founding a Non-Profit for Structural Integration Access
We are beyond excited to share our news in the creation of a Structural Integration, educational non-profit organization. We have been working diligently the past 10 months to nurture and grow our initial ideas into what it is now.
Who are we?
We are a small group of Structural Integrators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Our faculty includes practitioners from Structural Integration (SI) training programs including Anatomy Trains, Dr. Ida Rolf Institute, and the Soma Institute. Additionally, pieces of our curriculum have been designed in collaboration with practitioners from the American Guild of Structural Integration (AGSI), Hellerwork, and the University of New Mexico - Taos SI program.
From training program to non-profit
Our group came together out of a simple idea to create an SI training program in Portland, Oregon. As we started to ask ourselves why, we discovered a unanimous desire for SI to be more widely available. A local training program made a lot of sense. More schools meant more practitioners, and that meant more people would learn about and access SI as a part of their healthcare.
We started analyzing the barriers for potential students to access training in SI. With less than 15 schools recognized by the International Association of Structural Integration (IASI) world-wide, there were clearly geographic barriers, requiring many students to travel long distances and increasing the financial burden of obtaining the training.
Another potential barrier we started to consider was the demographics of bodywork and Structural Integration professions. We found in our initial research demographics being reported as 88% white, and felt there was a need to bridge the gap for historically marginalized communities to get trained in SI.
For our training program and curriculum we considered many options including collaborating with local community colleges or universities, or even becoming a satellite program of an existing school. With qualified lead faculty coming from 3 different SI lineages, we understood the need for a foundational curriculum that any faculty could teach without the necessity of additional training or auditing of another program.
At this point our intentions were very clear and we set our mission to increase access to Structural Integration education and services.
Where we are headed
Once we knew our mission, we understood our impact of this organization could extend well beyond our local community in Portland. Our strategic plan for the next several years includes the following goals.
2024: Create a foundational curriculum with the intention of launching a cohort the following year. This curriculum could be utilized in supporting qualified SI practitioners in the creation of other programs around the country to start their own local programs.
2025: Offer an SI training in Portland, Oregon. Begin IDA-SI Equity Advancement Scholarship Fund for students of historically marginalized communities to use towards any IASI-recognized school.
2026: Continue local SI training in Portland and begin networking with qualified SI practitioners in other communities with interest in starting training programs. First round of scholarships distributed to other IASI-recognized schools.
2027: Create a community clinic offering no- to low-cost sessions for SI. Start building the Portland training as a pathway to licensure.
Where we are now
We have reached several huge milestones for our organization this year and are on track with our strategic plan, through the hard work of the founders, faculty, board of directors and collaborators.
June 4, 2024 - Incorporated as an educational non-profit with the state of Oregon
June 21, 2024 - Submitted the application for tax exemption status as a 501(c)(3) with the federal government.
July 1, 2024 - Officially accepting applications for students to join our 2025 cohort
July 5, 2024 - Submitted application to IASI for recognition as an approved SI program
So much gratitude
Now that we have applied for IASI recognition, we felt the time was right for the SI community at large to learn about our efforts. We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Dr. Kirstie Segarra, PhD BCSI LMT ERYT CIAYT and faculty at the University of New Mexico - Taos Structural Integration program, for generously providing their curriculum, syllabi, and supporting materials to serve as the blueprint for our own program. Not having to build an entire curriculum from scratch accelerated us in being able to offer a training next year.
