Claire Santos helps Stacey Barrineau during a yoga class at Family Wellness, at 4817 NE 2nd Loop, on Saturday in Ocala.Claire Santos is involved with Yoga Gangsters, an outreach to help at-risk youth.

Dont let her smile fool you Claire Santos is a gangster.

Absolutely, Im a gangster a yoga gangster, Santos, 37, said as she took a break Saturday while leading group sessions at Power Yoga of Ocala.

Santos, a registered yoga instructor with 400 hours of certification, who also teaches private lessons, is spearheading an effort to form an Ocala chapter of Yoga Gangsters, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides free yoga to troubled youth. The program, given a fun name to connect with kids, has a goal of turning young people away from destructive behavior and toward a positive self-image by instilling self-esteem, confidence and peace of mind.

Santos, who moved to Ocala from Oregon in 2009, heard about Yoga Gangsters through family members.

We want to empower youth who are mired in addictive, criminal and violent situations, and circumstances from teen pregnancy to HIV, to find their presence with the science and practice of yoga, Santos said. When someone is more connected due to the practice of yoga, its harder to do things that are harmful.

She said hatha yoga is more than 5,000 years old and that the word yoga has to do with combining of mind, body and spirit.

Marisol Tamez, 28, a former MTV television producer, has served as executive director of Yoga Gangsters since 2011. The group was founded in 2008 by Terri Cooper. Tamez said the focus is to establish self-awareness, self-respect and self-control among youth who are at-risk or in crisis.

One of the many organizations Yoga Gangsters has served is Stand Up for Kids, an organization that focuses on homeless teens in the Miami area. We also conduct programs at local hospitals and childrens rehabilitation centers to work with children as young as 2 years old, using yoga in an attempt to lower blood pressure without medication as well as address numerous other health conditions, including Autism and Down syndrome, Tamez wrote in an email.

There was an 18-year-old homeless youth in one of our Yoga Gangsters programs who participated for several months and then suddenly stopped appearing. I assumed he went back to a bad environment, Tamez wrote. A few months later, I ran into him on the street. He looked like a new person, was well-dressed and groomed, and shared that he had moved back home after restoring a positive relationship with his mom.

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Instructor hopes to bring Yoga Gangsters chapter to town