Author: Ian Kilpatrick
At InnerCity Weightlifting, fitness is more than movement—it's a lifeline. Through fitness, we work to amplify the voices and agency of people impacted by mass incarceration, systemic racism, and street violence.
Each of our members' paths looks different. But they all include two key elements:
- Career development and guidance within the fitness industry: Our Personal Training Apprenticeship Program gets our participants certified and working as fitness professionals within our social enterprise gyms.
- Holistic individual case management services: It's unrealistic to ask anyone to hold down a job or show up for family when their basic needs aren't met. We work with each individual to manage and heal the effects of trauma that street violence, incarceration, and generational systemic oppression have on our participants.
How ICW's Personal Training Apprenticeship Program Works
Rather than letting a set curriculum dictate our work, we create Individual Advancement Plans (IAPs) for each participant. Our IAPs take into account what barriers someone might be facing—like homelessness, food insecurity, or legal stipulations—what they need to overcome those barriers, and what interests them.
IAPs drive how case managers partner with each participant. They're not created all at once—they're evolving documents that change as we learn how to best leverage our resources to help each participant.
We offer three levels of certification. The first two are in-house, where participants work with our coaching team to learn how to perform and teach basic exercise mechanics, design training programs, and work with clients.
The third level is a national certification, purchased by ICW, through the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) or the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)—two highly reputable national organizations.
Once participants complete an in-house certification, they can begin training clients at ICW – earning $20-60/hr depending on how many clients they train at a time. Once they earn a national certification, they can lead corporate clients, earning $100/hr.
More Than Fitness
For us, the gym is a place to grow and deepen relationships. As that happens, people open up. They trust us enough to share what they want and need. Common wraparound services include:
- Opening bank accounts
- Securing IDs (and documents needed for an ID like a birth certificate)
- Connecting participants with social workers
- Teaching financial literacy
- Connecting participants with other workforce development programs
- Facilitating educational achievement like completing a GED/HiSET
ICW's Impact
ICW's work counters a long history of systemic othering and marginalization that has caused unjust harm across generations. ICW believes movement has the power to heal, and takes a unique, fitness-centered approach to develop each participant's sense of dignity, belonging, and safety.
DIGNITY
Every human being carries with them an inherent dignity that comes from within and cannot be taken away. Too often, ICW participants have been disconnected from society—by systems and by other individuals—and internalize that they are not worthy of standing tall and dignified.
To address this, ICW earns trust and builds hope.
Systemic inequities create a natural sense of distrust, and we can only earn our participants' trust through relationship and community building. Through our Personal Training Apprenticeship Program, participants and staff build trust, confidence, and a sense of purpose.
This is the true ICW magic, where dignity becomes a two-way street. Trainers feel a sense of pride from succeeding at their jobs, where they are the experts, and regain their dignity.
Meanwhile, clients find themselves in a safe, supportive community, forced to remove stigma and fear placed on their trainer by society, media, etc. They see the human being in front of them, helping them get fit, standing with dignity.
This powerful new connection is made possible through the common commitment to personal growth through strength training and fitness.
BELONGING
To thrive, we need to belong. ICW participants join us with a deep sense of belonging to their neighborhood and social group. It's a belonging forged in love, shared trauma, survival, and interdependence. Unfortunately, it's also a forced belonging born of systemic segregation that cuts them off from opportunity, resources, and a more diverse, hopeful perspective of the world.
Our gyms are often the first physical spaces in our participants' worlds where their stress levels actually come down. Where they feel that they belong to something bigger.
People who have been incarcerated or affiliated with street violence are excluded from jobs, educational settings, and even other nonprofit programs. This exclusion is based on fear that ICW refuses to subscribe to. We meet our participants with an open heart, curious about their circumstances, so that we can offer support.
Once people feel like they belong somewhere healthy and productive, the walls of distrust and resistance start to crumble. Belonging to a community like ICW reminds participants that they are valued and don't have to take on impossible challenges alone.
Cultivating a sense of belonging helps everyone—personal training clients need places to belong, too. Our clients often say our gym culture is the most welcoming one they've ever experienced. We believe this is because our trainers know what it feels like to be excluded or othered in shared space and often make an extra effort to counter it.
This is the beauty and magic of our model. When two groups divided by history, stigma, and misguided fear find belonging in something as meaningful as fitness, labels and judgments fade away, and life-changing connections are made.
SAFETY
At ICW, we work to create a culture of safety at three levels: individual, relational, and community.
On the individual level, we can't support people with our program if they don't feel safe with us. Their feeling of safety doesn't come from metal detectors or security guards; it comes from us listening to what they need, who they don't want to be around, and helping them with rides to and from the gym.
Safety is also crucial to help our clients. People have a lot of choices in where they spend their fitness-focused time and money, and they're not going to spend it somewhere they feel unsafe. Our clients stay with us because they know their program will push them, their trainer is looking out for them, and they feel free to be themselves every time they step into the gym.
Relationships and connections create the safe atmospheres we all need to be our best selves. At ICW, it's the relationships between staff and participants that foster real safety. It comes from staff being consistent, predictable, and reliable, while also holding clients accountable.
It's common for ICW participants to find us without any safe relationships with people outside of their immediate family and community. This is the impact of generations of systemic othering and marginalization that have divided people even just one neighborhood away.
Breaking down this divide with genuine connection helps dissolve fear and allows folks to depend on each other. This interdependence between our peers and neighbors leads to sustainable community safety that no form of punishment could achieve.
If you're reading this, we'd love for you to help us lift this weight together!
How to Get Involved
Become a client
The win-win scenario at the core of ICW's mission and model. Being a client means access to affordable personal training from experts while also breaking down the systems that divide us.
https://www.innercityweightlifting.org/trainicw
Bring us to work
We have over 10 years of experience leading corporate group fitness classes, fitness challenges, team building sessions, and panel discussions.
https://www.innercityweightlifting.org/corporate
Donate
ICW is a nonprofit organization that depends on the incredible generosity of our community. A study done by PwC in 2017 and confirmed in 2022 showed that every dollar donated to or spent with ICW returned $12 to society by reducing recidivism and street violence while creating jobs.
5 More Amazing Organizations Using Fitness Community to Make a Social Impact
The Phoenix, National
The Phoenix is a national nonprofit dedicated to building a sober active community that invites people with lived experience of addiction, along with their friends, allies, and supporters, to connect, move, and heal together. Their model centers on inclusive fitness and wellness activities such as group fitness, yoga, rock climbing, cycling, meditation, and team sports, offering these as free or low-cost ways to foster connection and empowerment.
The Phoenix leverages the power of community, movement, and peer support to help individuals find purpose, reduce isolation, and sustain recovery in meaningful ways. Their approach affirms that healing is not only about abstaining from substances but about rebuilding a life rooted in belonging, wellness, and shared strength.
Trauma Informed Weightlifting, Online
Trauma Informed Weight Lifting is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that empowers people who have experienced trauma by helping fitness professionals, mental health practitioners, and movement coaches create safe and inclusive spaces for strength training. They use an evidence-informed approach grounded in exercise science, neuroscience, and trauma research to support healing, resilience, bodily connection, and a sense of agency through weight lifting.
Their training programs teach practitioners how to integrate trauma-informed practices such as autonomy, interoceptive awareness, and relational safety into gym and therapeutic settings. By shifting focus from performance or appearance toward healing and community support, the organization helps individuals reconnect with their bodies, build strength, and regain control over their wellness journeys.
Level Ground, Boston, MA
Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts is a Boston-based nonprofit that empowers urban youth through athletic training in martial arts alongside academic support and employment pathways. They provide free martial arts instruction, including MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, and yoga for young people, and offer affordable adult classes.
The organization pairs physical training with mentorship, workforce development, college access programs, and leadership opportunities for youth participants. Through these combined pillars of fitness and education, Level Ground uses movement as a vehicle for building resilience, community, and future career pathways.
Reimagym, Greater Boston, MA
Reimagym is a queer-friendly fitness studio in Medford, Massachusetts that intentionally welcomes anyone who has ever felt uncomfortable or intimidated by mainstream gym culture. The founders created a radically inclusive community where all bodies are seen and celebrated, and where fitness, strength, and growth are grounded in supportive connection rather than shame or exclusion.
The gym offers small group training, personal coaching, and nutrition support that emphasize lifelong health and personal agency, helping people build strength, confidence, and sustainable habits. Through this holistic and welcoming approach, Reimagym uses fitness as a vehicle for empowerment, allowing members to redefine what health means to them and become stronger—physically, mentally, and socially—in a community where they truly belong.
Boston Bulldogs Boston, MA
The Boston Bulldogs Running Club is a coed 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates a safe, anonymous, and supportive community for people affected by addiction, including those in recovery, family members, and caregivers. The organization hosts organized weekly runs across multiple locations to help members build wellness habits and connect in a fun, encouraging environment.
Through programs like the six-week Full Circle wellness initiative, a paid Leadership Program for graduates, and the Junior Bulldogs program for at-risk youth, the club uses fitness as a pathway for healing, growth, and leadership development. They also host events such as the annual Run for Recovery and Tribute 5K, and participate in the Boston Marathon to bring people together and raise funds for recovery-oriented programs. By centering movement and community, the Boston Bulldogs transform running into a powerful tool for connection, empowerment, and long-term well-being.
