By Rachel De La Rosa
In 1997, Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women, Inc. was involved in a lawsuit challenging its women-only membership status. Two years was spent defending the position for women-only membership, but they lost the case. Ultimately, Healthworks prevailed by changing the public accommodations law that allowed for single-gender fitness centers. This is where the concept of the Healthworks Foundation arose.
Founded in 1998, The Healthworks Foundation, headquartered in Boston, Mass., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and empowerment of women and children from all cultural and economic backgrounds, through fitness outreach efforts, scholarship programs and many community-based events. In 2002, The Foundation opened the Healthworks Foundation Fitness Center (HWFFC) in Dorchester on the St. Mary's Women and Children's Campus with the goal of serving women who are homeless and low-income and pregnant and parenting teens. Currently it serves more than 2,000 women from disenfranchised communities in Boston.
The HWFFC created the Women @ Healthworks Health and Wellness Education Program in an effort to give low-income and homeless women access to physical activity and nutrition education. Women @ Healthworks, received a $10,000 RYKÄ Women's Fitness Grant in 2004, one of 26 grants totaling $150,000 that RYKÄ has given since 2002 to benefit the health and well-being of women across the United States. The program will teach more than 50 participants the importance of fitness, nutrition and healthy eating for job readiness and retention. Over the course of 12 weeks, participants will attend weekly, two-hour workshops that center on nutrition, mind and body, exercise and wellness issues and two individual or group cardiovascular and strength-training workouts at the HWFFC. Participants will get pre- and post-program health screenings and fitness assessments. In addition, they will receive a free membership to the HWFFC to have access to cardio and strength training equipment, group exercise classes, wellness coaching, personal training, and nutrition education during and after the 12-week program.
Women @ Healthworks participants (of which approximately 75% of the women are over 25 years old, 90% are African-American or Latina, 20% are homeless, 40% have been homeless in the past and 75% receive public assistance) are students at the Women @ Work program at St. Mary's Women and Children's Center, a welfare reform employment readiness-training program that addresses the vocational need of women who face multiple barriers to employment. Complementing job-readiness training, Women @ Healthworks offers women additional tools to improve their quality of life and, in turn, improve their chances of maintaining stable employment.
Participants who have stayed in the program for a year or more have seen significant and positive changes in their quality of life as well as their physical health. Many of them have reported being taken off of medicine for high blood pressure and having lowered their cholesterol. They also serve as mentors to new participants by providing them with their testimonies, support and assistance. “I believe that fitness and wellness is an instrumental tool in the social and emotional development. The members of HWFFC receive fitness education and support and are encouraged to apply these tools to their daily lives and that of their children,” said Kimberlli Walker, Director.
For more information on the RYKÄ Women's Fitness Grant, visit our Grants & Scholarships section. For more information on RYKÄ, follow the link at the bottom of the page to their web site.