Meet the Urban Yogis Team

Our team have a wide range of experience and qualifications within yoga, sport/movement, social care, education, and youth & community work. This enables them to deliver a brilliant service to young people and communities. The team are all motivated and passionate about helping young people, and believe that Yoga has the power to make a positive impact in peoples lives.

Ben Eckett

Ben has been practising Yoga since 2016 and completed his teacher training in 2018 – he currently holds a 300 hour RYT.

Ben has over 15 years of experience working in social care, youth offending, youth work and education. He has a BA Hons Degree in Social Pedagogy (Youth & Community Development) and REPS Level 3 Personal Training qualification, Level 3 ‘Place2Be’ counselling.

Ben is the Co-Founder and Director of Gloves Not Gunz CIC which uses sport and education to divert young people from crime and exploitation. The organisation offers community sports, mentoring, schools workshops, counselling and an alternative education provision. In 2018, they started a programme called BoxFlow Yoga, this was an intervention that uses yoga to support young people involved in serious violence and gangs. Ben has created classes that teach the young people asana, pranayama and meditation to help them develop their emotional awareness and build resilience. The programme had a positive influence on diverting young people from crime and preventing school exclusions. In 2019 Ben became Director and Yoga Teacher at Urban Yogis UK. The previous Box Flow Yoga programme integrated into UYUK.

Ben is passionate about making Yoga being accessible to all and teaching the true roots of yoga to help support and develop communities.

Adam Ballard

Adam is the Co-Founder and Director of Gloves Not Gunz. He has over 10 years of experience in Youth Work and has been coaching in sport for 15 years. Adam is new to Yoga but already practicing daily, he believes that Yoga can be a great tool for relieving stress and anxiety, improving mental health and keeping active.

Adam competed in Muay Thai boxing and has coached a young person from Gloves Not Gunz to become British Champion.

Nicola Bianca

Nicola started her yoga journey in 2015 and in 2019 completed the Hatha Yoga Teacher training with British School of Yoga and is currently studying for her Meditation Teacher Diploma with Centre of Excellence. She has been sharing her practice and teaching yoga since 2018 around Torbay. She has spent the last 2 years working with the sixth form students at Brixham Community College on Flexible Learning days introducing the basics to yoga philosophy, pranayama, asana and meditation. In 2019, Nicola did a 4 week yoga programme with a group of year 10/11 girls helping to show the students how yoga can relieve stress and anxiety. Working on specific postures to help release stress and tension in the body and mind, showing how the body benefits from movement and the mind benefits from stillness.

Yoga came into her life when travelling with friends across America who introduced this lifestyle to her and its many benefits. Her passion for yoga grew as she saw the physical benefits when it helped to heal an ongoing knee injury and how her mind found clarity through the continuous spiritual journey that yoga offers. Nicola’s goal is to use her experiences to help others do the same. Yoga provides us with the tools needed to help heal the mind, body & spirit. Nicola truly believes that yoga is for everyone and is a powerful tool to bring balance into our lives.

Romario Simpson

At the age of 11, Romario competed in national gymnastic competitions. Since then, physical fitness, movement and breath have always been a part of his life. He is a trained professional actor, graduating from The Academy Of Live & Recorded Arts. Majority of the training was practical and filled with daily yoga routines. Since then, he’s noticed how abandoning this routine has made his breathing shallow, and posture slouched.

He is currently completing a 200 hour yoga teacher training and is restoring his connection with mind, body, spirit. Yoga can help young people and adults to channel self control and discipline. He now focuses on bodyweight training and clean eating. Health is wealth!

He is a youth mentor at Gloves Not Gunz, aiming to prevent and divert young people from crime and exploitation and equip them with skills they need to progress further.