Photo: Chris Cardoza
The changes happening at Jon Feinman’s gyms are more than just physical.
He runsInnerCity Weightlifting, a nonprofit that helps former gang members get their personal training certifications — and connects them with paying clients. “The power dynamics get flipped in the gym,” Feinman tells PEOPLE. “They’re the valued experts, and clients are paying to learn from them. In turn, our students are accessing networks and opportunities and feeling like they belong in places that traditionally shut them out.”
He describes a surprising benefit for the clients as well. “Our clients, who are mostly white and affluent, may have not known anyone who has gone to jail before,” he explains. “Their world views are changing because now they are forced to reconcile with the reality that this same person who might be a scary statistic in the news — this same person is actually Joe.”
The idea started in 2006 with a random soccer ball rolling his way in East Boston, Mass. The Americorps volunteer found himself playing random pickup games with a group of guys — a handful of whom were members of the notorious MS13 street gang. “Everyone told me not to go near them because they were too dangerous,” Feinman tells PEOPLE. “But I had the opportunity to get to know them as people.”
“I saw the overwhelming amount of segregation, isolation and racism that they were up against,” says Feinman, 36. “People wrote them off as, ‘They don’t care, and therefore they are not going to change.’ What I saw wasn’t a lack of care — but a lack of hope.”
Founder of InneerCity Weightlifting Jon Feinman.Yuri Vaysgant
“Initially I thought we were going to get people into the Olympics and get them college athletic scholarships — it was everything that a white guy from Amherst would think would work,” Feinman says jokingly. “And then you start doing the work and you have guys that have been shot and paralyzed, guys going in and out of jail, people unfortunately who get killed. The idea that weight training was going to help solve someone’s problems was ridiculous.”
Joe, one of the trainers at InnerCity Weightlifting.Chris Cardoza
These days the organization continues to expand. In 2015 Feinman opened a second location in Kendall Square in Cambridge, which serves as the primary personal training gym. One of the trainers there — after spending a combined 10 years in and out of jail — makes $60,000, pays rent and just took his family to Disneyland. There are now 35 official trainers and more than 130 students in the program, and ICW also offers corporate fitness classes and outdoor boot camps.
Chris Cardoza
And while financial empowerment was always a goal, Feinman is also proud of the unexpected developments. “We realized something else was happening before the economic mobility,” he says. “And that’s this bridging of social capital.”
Looking ahead, Feinman hopes to one day expand the successful model nationally. According to the ICWwebsite, 81 percent of students avoided incarceration in 2018 and the average hourly wage for all trainers in the program is more than $19.
In the meantime, the founder remains down to earth. “Some of the best advice I got is that I have no clue what I am doing. I haven’t been shot, I haven’t spent time in jail. I’m a white guy from Amherst. The only thing I can do is listen.”
source: people.com
