RWJF Honors InnerCity Weightlifting
InnerCity Weightlifting, founded by Jon Feinman MBA’10, is among the three 2016 winners of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Sports Award. The winners will receive a $7,500 cash award and will be honored at a September 28, 2016 ceremony at the RWJF headquarters in Princeton, N.J.
InnerCity Weightlifting
The three recipients have been awarded this honor for their innovative and influential approaches to using sports to build a Culture of Health in their communities. “Congratulations to these three organizations and their creative approach to building a Culture of Health in America,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF President and CEO. “Their ongoing work demonstrates a much-needed passion for community and their belief in the power of individuals to make that community stronger.”
InnerCity Weightlifting reduces youth violence by connecting proven-risk young people with new networks and opportunities, including meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal fitness. InnerCity Weightlifting uses the gym to replace segregation and isolation with economic mobility and social inclusion, disrupting the system that leads to urban street violence. The gym is a hook to earn our students trust, build relationships, and provide a positive community for them to belong. They gain hope. They get to see the world—and be seen by it—in a very different way, paving a path for sustainable and systemic change.
“We are incredibly honored and excited to be a recipient of the RWJF Sports Award. Our work centers around using sport and careers in fitness to reduce violence by creating economic mobility and by facilitating connections,” said Jon Feinman, Executive Director and Founder. “By bridging social capital we as individuals and as a society gain the value of perspective, knowledge, and understanding. It allows us to find meaningful solutions for some of our most challenging problems and to help heal communities as we replace fear with understanding, replace segregation and isolation with inclusion. This award means so much, as it helps to further this message, and to empower all people growing up in our nations cities, no matter what section they were born in. We are honored to be able to partner with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and continue this journey together.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Sports Award honors individuals, organizations and teams that are making communities healthier through sport and are dedicated to building a Culture of Health. Follow the award on Twitter (@RWJFSportsAward).
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.