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Inner City Weightlifting Case Study

Read the Case study on page 457-466 and prepare answers to questions 1, 2, 3 and 4. This assignment should be 1-2 pages in length.

PS. the mentioned book is Entrepreneurship, by Andrew Zacharakis, Andrew C.Corbett.

The questions that should be answered are: 1. Should ICW expand to Philadelphia? 2. Besides financial, what obstacles would such an expansion face? 3. Can ICW replicate its Boston success in Philadelphia? What are the key factors that need replication? 4. While Josh has worked for ICW since the beginning, is he the right person to lead expansion?

Case InnerCity Weightlifting I started realizing there are things that I need to do that are more model could scale. Could other cities replicate the Boston important than gangbanging and wasting my life in the streets. model? He wondered if ICW worked because the team really Even though I felt stuck in it. Even though there were 10 dudes understood Boston. He worried that other cities and gangs that wanted to kill me and there was no way for me to get out of might be very different and that the model might not fit else- the streets. I started realizing there is more important things that where. As CEO of a nonprofit, Jon knew there was a lot rid- need to be done. I have a daughter. My father wasn't in my life ing on the decision. While growing ICW into a national model and maybe if my father was in my life it would be different. If I was his dream, expansion posed several risks, especially for die, then who is the man that is going to be in her life? I started the financial well-being of his company. There were lives on looking at my family through the generations. Nobody in my the line if ICW did not work in Philadelphia, worse, a misstep family owns a house. They have been living in the poor section could potentially set the Boston operation back by damaging of the city. They don't even have an income. Nobody in my ICW's financial well-being and reputation. The Philadelphia family even had a car. I was the first one to own a car. I want to move might be successful, but it could put a crushing burden break that cycle for my family. I want to own a house so that my on the lean management team if other cities increased pressure daughter, when I leave, can take over the house and get things on ICW to expand there. going. I want to get my daughter away from living in those parts ICW works to reduce street violence and recidivism of the of the city. I don't want her around that. highest-risk youth in the city. One percent of Boston's youth is - Joe Sierra, ICW trainer and former InnerCity Weightlift- responsible for over 50% of the city's gun violence. This one ing student percent is about 400 people who live mostly in the neighbor- hoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mission Hill. This list of 400 Section 1: Is the Time Right to Expand to a Second City? people, called the PACT list, includes those most likely to kill Jon Feinman, founder and executive director of InnerCity or be killed, identified by the Boston Police in its Partnership Weightlifting (ICW), was working out in one of ICW's Boston- Advancing Communities Together program for reducing street area gyms as he did every day. ICW is a nonprofit focused on violence in Boston. Most of these individuals are affiliated with reducing recidivism by giving young men who are active in a gang and have done significant jail time. The Boston Police the streets the tools to turn their lives around. Jon was proud call them "high-impact players." ICW identifies and recruits that ICW was having a profound impact on the lives of its stu- this group of young people to be their students. dents like Joe. Jon wanted to grow ICW so it could impact more ICW helps its students turn their lives around by building young people involved in gangs and the streets. He was contem- trust, instilling hope, and providing opportunity. Not many plating a potential major growth initiative: should ICW expand organizations are willing to work with this population, but beyond Boston? He had planned to expand to other cities since Jon believes transforming even a few gang members will founding ICW, and he and the board had chosen Philadelphia as have huge benefits not only for the students, but also for the a possible next location. greater Boston community. He believes the model will bring There are approximately 1,150,000 gang members in the systemic change by reducing violence and changing society's United States distributed among 24.250 gangs, some local perceptions of the demographic that makes up his student and some national. ICW's unique program helps transform population. the most hardened gang members in Boston into a better life Jon always had the goal of expanding from Boston to other outside of gangs. Jon wondered whether ICW's high-touch high-profile cities to achieve national systemic change. He feels that after almost eight years of operation, now is the time. He knows there is great demand for ICW to expand to other cities. When ESPN ran a short documentary in 2013, the ICW serve a kindergarten through eighth grade school in East Boston, and crashed twice as people from all over the country and around the his role was to involve kids in after-school sports programs, world posted messages and sent e-mails requesting information Jon was drawn to a group of young people associated with about how to start a chapter in their city. But big unanswered one of the nation's most violent gangs, MS-13. Other coun questions remain: is ICW ready for expansion? Will Jon's seloes told him not to bother with this group they were too model be sustainable in another city? Will Philadelphia, the dangerous and definitely didn't care enough to change-but Jon city chosen for expansion, have the same positive reaction as was determined to make contact and build a connection. At first Boston? Can ICW work without Jon there at every step! they paid him little notice they were suspicious of Jon as he Jon knows the risk is great. While expansion could cer- self-described himself as the small white kid from Amherst tainly transform more lives in more places, if it is not executed Mass." The kids, mostly of color from the inner city of Boston, properly, it could also cause ICW to lose its intimate mode didn't relate to Jon. One day while the boys were playing soccer, of operation, arguably the biggest factor for current success. Jon saw his opportunity. After showing them some tricks, Jon Furthermore, failure in Philadelphia risks hurting ICW beyond eamed their attention. He started to break through the trust repair, thus closing the doors not only to Philadelphia's high barrier by playing soccer and lifting weights with them. Dur- impact players but also to ICW students in Boston as well. ing this time, he got to kxw them for who they were as people Without ICW, many might not have any option but to turn back beyond their MS-13 label and learned from them something that to the streets for survival. And on the streets, the six-month forever changed his perspective. outlook for these young men is jail or death. I recognized what I believed to be confusion benveen The Beginnings of a Social Entrepreneur lack of care and lack of hope. People call them thurgs. Jon grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, a small, wealthy, sub gang members, criminals, and whatever other word they urban town that provided him with plenty of opportunities. went to throw out to basically write them off. because they think they don't care and thar you can't really do 1 grew up in a family and community with connections and much for someone who doesn't care what I saw was very opportunity. I went to college because everyone I knew went to different. No one wants to end up dead or in jail, anal yer college. That was really my only focus growing up. After working they are willing to lose their life to a bullet or jail to be with ICW students, I recognize how much I look for granted." there for each other, to care for each other. I saw this College was Jon's primary focus. He figured he would really genuine form of care and I saw what was lacking graduate, start a career and a family of his own, and live the was not care, but hope. That realization was empowering American dream like his parents and all the people he grew because hope is something that I felt I could do something up with. With the luxury of being able to choose from various about, and more importantly, we as a society could do extracurricular activities, Jon took up many hobbies, including Something about soccer. He excelled at specer, and after graduating from high school, I was recruited to play for Bryant University. At S'8" Spending time with the young people eventually helped Jon and 160 pounds. Jon had always been an undersized athlete. To discover what drove them to the streets. They lacked lope and compete at the collegiate level, he started taking weightlifting opportunity and a network to access opportunity. These young very seriously. His dedication to weightlifting throughout his people only have the support of their fellow gang members. undergraduate years led him to certification and his first job as which leads to gang activity and street violence. If the lack of a personal trainer hope and opportunity led to violence, what is it that drains hope Jon started studying to be a personal trainer after college. He and opportunity? enjoyed the science behind the sport and later, the relationships I started to recognize the system. (Our students are born he built with his clients. During the first year after graduation, Jon's main commitment was his work with the AmeriCorps info families and communities that are segregated and isolated. Unlike myself, they have to worry about rent, program. Athletes in Service in America. He was stationed at they have to worry about food, they have to worry about clothes. There's no wry that school can be their only focus. So they turn to the streets to solve the real challenges thar they face today, because they don't act to see fomorrow unless they take care of those short-term obstacles that are about the young people he met during AmeriCorps. He had in their way. Rather than leveraging an education to find a enjoyed working with them and was still passionate about mak- meaningful career, they find themselves in jail. They come ing an impact on their lives. Using sports and lifting had worked out more segregated and more isolated. All along the way to connect with them then, so why couldn't it work again? everyone calls them a lad decision-maker, when in reality, Once the idea that would become ICW started forming in his they den have a single goud option to choose from. This whole system gets perpetuated every time someone like head, Jon decided to take a big risk. He put himself in debt to myself during that year in AmeriCorps) was told stay go to Babson College to get his MBA. To this day, Jon says it away from them: "Dum cross this street: it's dangerous was one of the best decisions of his life. Going to school for an over there." That very avoidance creates segregated and MBA is what allowed his idea to grow. Jon started piloting his isolated pockets of communities which leads to a lack of business plan while at Babson. He was able to use an acquain- resources, lack of opportunity inequality proverty, and the Tance's gym space for two hours, three days a week, to start need for the streets in the first place, which manifests itsel! working with their target students. While in his pilot period, in wolence. Jon received a piece of criticism that led to the basic approach for running ICW today. Jon was told that he had no idea what Jon had always been considered a good decision-maker he was doing, and he agreed. "Since I had no clue what I was by society, but he realized this was because he only ever had doing, I really only had one option. To LISTEN. I think too good options to choose from. On the other hand, society looks often, especially in the nonprofit sector, we try to solve prob- down on his students" decisions and punishes them through lems from our own privileged perspective, that somehow if the criminal justice system. While these decisions might lead we can get kids onto the path we followed, their lives will be to actions that break the law, the decisions themselves are not better-it worked for me, so it should work for everyone else. illogical. Their decision-making process isn't what is flawed, it This is flawed logic." is their options, limited by a society that has written them off. Jon started listening to his students and realized his original Getting to know these young men helped Jon start to recognize business plan wasn't going to work for ICW's target population. the system of segregation and isolation that left this population Originally, Jon thought he would reduce violence in the target with only bad options. Thus, leading to street violence with population by using weightlifting to get kids into the Olympics death or jail as the most likely outcomes. or win college athletic scholarships. After listening to the stu- Many of Jon's realizations took place during his time in dents he was working with, Jon soon realized his original idea AmeriCorps, but it took him a while to develop those ideas and was deeply flawed. "Knowing this was the population we were start thinking of a solution. When Jon's year in AmeriCorps working with and reducing violence was our end goal, there's exted, his work as a personal trainer expanded from a side gig probably a million different ways to get there. To succeed, we to his full-time job. After another year or two of working for needed to let the students define their own path and shape the himself as a trainer, at age 24, he had a full schedule of clients organization off that. Like I said, I don't know what they have and a comfortable salary. Jon was uneasy with the fact that he to go through on a day-to-day basis." had reached this top level of success in the field at such a young It turns out, just getting these young men in the gym, off the age. He knew he could continue like this and lead a comfortable streets, lifting together and building a community not based on life, but he wasn't satisfied. Jon decided to pursue the idea that violence, was much more realistic, effective, and far-reaching in he had been contemplating since AmeriCorps. impact than trying to get them college scholarships or Olympic glory. This change in philosophy led Jon to make adjustments. The Founding Story of ICW including letting go of some of his original coaches because There isn't one moment that Jon can point to as the moment they were too focused on the lifting and not on the connection when the idea for ICW came to him. Rather, the idea started and community aspect that I needed to center around. Jon forming as a combination of his life experiences and his feeling now viewed the gym and weightlifting as a hook" to attract his of being stuck in a career at age 24. While Jon was talking to target population. He built a community and support system to one of his personal training clients about his concems, he real accomplish the larger mission of helping his students redirect ized he could use his traiter skillset to make a social impact. Although he had lost contact with them. Jon had not forgotten their lives. After this change in model, ICW really started to here can do is do what they can do for these kids. Do what you grow into what it is today can do and don't ever give up on these kids." ICW has developed four main sequential stages that stu- How ICW Works dents work through: Trust, Hope, Social Capital, and finally InnerCity Weightlifting's entire philosophy is centered around Economie Mobility. Originally. ICW sought students through a promise. "What this organization is about, is that we can't court referrals, street workers, and juvenile detention centers. promise to solve (our students') short-term problems, because Now, ICW has grown enough in Boston that it only needs to they are too severe and honestly, we can't hope to fix them. What rely on word-of-mouth, their current students bringing friends we do promise and commit to is being by their side so they don't to the program. ICW works hard to ensure they are only admit- have to solve these problems alone. That became pretty powing students who are truly in their target demographic, which erful." As Joe Sierra, a student tumed trainer through ICW's is that 1% who are most susceptible to street vislence. Most of program notes: ICW students have shot, been shot, dove significant time in jail, and come from a family that makes less than $10,000 a year. When I talk to these kids, some of them have been shot If someone is referred to ICW who is not in this demographic, already. I ask them what they want to be when they grow ICW refers them to another program. up, and they don't even have an answer. They shrurg their ICW determines if a potential student is part of their target shoulders. Some of them say they want to move bricks, you demographic during an extensive screening process. To main- know kilos of cocaine ar her in. They think they're going tain the safety and security of everyone inside the gym, it is ter be Pablo Escobar. "You are not going to be Pablo Esco- imperative that ICW not mix tival gangs. During the screening har." I try to help them. I tell them what I've been the what I've seen. process, ICW must establish the student's identity within gang dynamics to ensure that it is safe to bring them into the gym Working individually with each person allows ICW to help We recognize the fact that we just don't know. We've students discover another way to live their lives. The incar- developed a process that takes everything off-site, and we ceration recidivism rate for ICW's target population before don't give away our locations publicly. We incorporate starting the program is 80%. Among those students who con our students in that process. If we don't know the person, tinue through the program long enough to develop hope and real our next step is to ask the people we are working with: alternatives, the rate drops to 8.2%. One of the reasons ICW do you know this persem? Do you know this group? Our is effective in reducing these rates is that they do not give up on own people actually have a big say in whether or not that their students. They do not require students to make it through person ends up at the gym, and it allows us to make sure all its stages consecutively or to "graduate" from the program. we are keeping everything safe even before we know the new candidate Many students are arrested, shot, or stabbed at different points while in the program, but Jon and his staff stand by their promise to help their students no matter what-visiting them in prison or Angel La Court, who has been with the program for six years in the hospital, going to court appearances, and writing to them and is now a certified trainer and student intake coordinator while they are behind bars. ICW also provides formal weight laughed when asked about his own screening process. lifting training so that students may achieve certification for a career as a weight trainet. The program also helps students who My friend brought me to the gwrt, and I mer Jon for the did not finish high school to earn a GED. This promise applies first time. But, there was a whole process before I mer Jon that took place without me even knowing. My boy to students in all stages of the program. Once ICW reaches out [friend asked Jon if I could come before he even asked to someone, the staff is there for that student no matter what. me to come. Somente did intake with me, and there was Cali, an ICW student who has started his own personal training a whole process and it was just crury the way it worked. program and attends Bunker Hill Community College, agrees I was like "S*** when was I going to be notified that this with this philosophy. "At the end of the day, all anyone around was going on?Jon didn't tell me until a couple months later when I asked "How come I didn't go through that intake prexcess?" and he was like "You did, you jest dieln" know it happened," and I was like "That's pretty much dedication and just showing up and really being cool"... I understood why too, because it was for every disciplined about leaming about fitness, doing some of the one's safety exercises yourself, learning about program design, and stuff like that. I took it seriously coming through the door.** In his current role as student intake coordinator, Angel helps Stage three, Social Capital , is where ICW's in-house personal with the screening process by reaching out to potential students, trainer training comes into play. The end goal for this stage is talking to them, and learning about their background and goals. making meaningful connectices and building genuine relation- The initial stage, Trust, takes place mostly outside of the ships with clients to bridge social capital across socioeconomic gym as part of the screening process. Within the first stage, ICW classes. This is when student networks really start to grow, they measures a student's success through his willingness to com- are training clients who come from six or seven figure back- municate. The first big step is to get their phone number, which grounds, Boston area professionals who work in finance or large already requires preliminary trust from the student. Then ICW corporations. Building these relationships eventually connects looks at the communication ratio they have with each student students to opportunities either directly from or within the cli- Does the student call or text back when ICW reaches out? At ents' extensive networks. Furthermore, all ICW students have a minimum, ICW likes to have at least eight points of contact access to everyone and everything in ICW. This provides all within a month with each student. This can be by phone or text, students with a network, no matter their stage or whether they appearance at the gym, cea car ride to and from the gym. During have built a personal training clientele. For example, Jon found this stage, ICW staff is building trust with students by listening out that Mack, one of ICW's students, was interested in con- to them and breaking down small barriers that are preventing sulting, Jon knew someone else's client who worked for a com them from coming into the gym. sulting firm, and they set up an opportunity for Mack to shadow someone at this company. Opportunities like these eventually Once you start listening, you hear that someone is ach- lead students to potential jobs. While these connections with ally interested, but they can't ger here safely. So I say clientele from the opposite socioeconomic background impact "Well, I'll pick you up tomorrow if you want." As you students greatly, clients are affected as well. ICW sends out listen, you start hearing how someone wants to come to the gym and work out, but they don't have a pair of surveys to its clients, and many say their perspective on this shorts. Well, we can buy you a pair of shorts. Someone population has changed. Clients consider many of the trainers might come here and more often than not, they haven' to be friends and vice versa. When asked about his relationships eaten thar day - let's go out for lunch. A lot of our guys, with his clients, Cali lit up. "Oh my clients?! Me and my clients they get out of jail, and they don't have an ID and yer are homies! Yeah, we're good, we're friends! they'll still have probation fees and they need a job, but Many clients meet with their student trainers outside of the they can get a job without an ID and they don't have gym, inviting them to dinner or some other activity. The gap any money. We take them and buy the ID for them. By between these two populations begins to be bridged and an listening you start to solve problems and earn some altered. positive perception starts to spread. "To be successful one's trust in these seemingly simple ways, which are we always need high-net-worth clients to come. We run corpo actually pretty profound. If you can't pay your probation rate training programs to try to bridge the gap between people of fees and you can't get a job, you are left with one choice: go back to the streets and solve your problems the way wealth and people of poverty. If they don't come together, you katerw how can't grow--we need them to grow, they need us to grow--we can't do it separately. Stage two, Hope, is all about engagement in the gym. Sue The last stage. Economic Mobility, is what ICW defines as cess in the second stage is eight engagements beyond just small earning over $30,000 a year. In this stage, success is measured conversation. Once students start coming to the gym regularly by how much money students are making. ICW knows how and are comfortable at ICW. they start to have hope that long. much students still in the program are earning and can estimate term goals are possible. Then they move on to the third stage. what students with jobs outside the organization are making. In As Cali notes. "You have to go through a process that allows addition to income and long-term employment, ICW also looks you to grow through the levels. The majority of that process is af recidivism rates and life stability as measures of success. Case InnerCity Weightlifting I started realizing there are things that I need to do that are more model could scale. Could other cities replicate the Boston important than gangbanging and wasting my life in the streets. model? He wondered if ICW worked because the team really Even though I felt stuck in it. Even though there were 10 dudes understood Boston. He worried that other cities and gangs that wanted to kill me and there was no way for me to get out of might be very different and that the model might not fit else- the streets. I started realizing there is more important things that where. As CEO of a nonprofit, Jon knew there was a lot rid- need to be done. I have a daughter. My father wasn't in my life ing on the decision. While growing ICW into a national model and maybe if my father was in my life it would be different. If I was his dream, expansion posed several risks, especially for die, then who is the man that is going to be in her life? I started the financial well-being of his company. There were lives on looking at my family through the generations. Nobody in my the line if ICW did not work in Philadelphia, worse, a misstep family owns a house. They have been living in the poor section could potentially set the Boston operation back by damaging of the city. They don't even have an income. Nobody in my ICW's financial well-being and reputation. The Philadelphia family even had a car. I was the first one to own a car. I want to move might be successful, but it could put a crushing burden break that cycle for my family. I want to own a house so that my on the lean management team if other cities increased pressure daughter, when I leave, can take over the house and get things on ICW to expand there. going. I want to get my daughter away from living in those parts ICW works to reduce street violence and recidivism of the of the city. I don't want her around that. highest-risk youth in the city. One percent of Boston's youth is - Joe Sierra, ICW trainer and former InnerCity Weightlift- responsible for over 50% of the city's gun violence. This one ing student percent is about 400 people who live mostly in the neighbor- hoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mission Hill. This list of 400 Section 1: Is the Time Right to Expand to a Second City? people, called the PACT list, includes those most likely to kill Jon Feinman, founder and executive director of InnerCity or be killed, identified by the Boston Police in its Partnership Weightlifting (ICW), was working out in one of ICW's Boston- Advancing Communities Together program for reducing street area gyms as he did every day. ICW is a nonprofit focused on violence in Boston. Most of these individuals are affiliated with reducing recidivism by giving young men who are active in a gang and have done significant jail time. The Boston Police the streets the tools to turn their lives around. Jon was proud call them "high-impact players." ICW identifies and recruits that ICW was having a profound impact on the lives of its stu- this group of young people to be their students. dents like Joe. Jon wanted to grow ICW so it could impact more ICW helps its students turn their lives around by building young people involved in gangs and the streets. He was contem- trust, instilling hope, and providing opportunity. Not many plating a potential major growth initiative: should ICW expand organizations are willing to work with this population, but beyond Boston? He had planned to expand to other cities since Jon believes transforming even a few gang members will founding ICW, and he and the board had chosen Philadelphia as have huge benefits not only for the students, but also for the a possible next location. greater Boston community. He believes the model will bring There are approximately 1,150,000 gang members in the systemic change by reducing violence and changing society's United States distributed among 24.250 gangs, some local perceptions of the demographic that makes up his student and some national. ICW's unique program helps transform population. the most hardened gang members in Boston into a better life Jon always had the goal of expanding from Boston to other outside of gangs. Jon wondered whether ICW's high-touch high-profile cities to achieve national systemic change. He feels that after almost eight years of operation, now is the time. He knows there is great demand for ICW to expand to other cities. When ESPN ran a short documentary in 2013, the ICW serve a kindergarten through eighth grade school in East Boston, and crashed twice as people from all over the country and around the his role was to involve kids in after-school sports programs, world posted messages and sent e-mails requesting information Jon was drawn to a group of young people associated with about how to start a chapter in their city. But big unanswered one of the nation's most violent gangs, MS-13. Other coun questions remain: is ICW ready for expansion? Will Jon's seloes told him not to bother with this group they were too model be sustainable in another city? Will Philadelphia, the dangerous and definitely didn't care enough to change-but Jon city chosen for expansion, have the same positive reaction as was determined to make contact and build a connection. At first Boston? Can ICW work without Jon there at every step! they paid him little notice they were suspicious of Jon as he Jon knows the risk is great. While expansion could cer- self-described himself as the small white kid from Amherst tainly transform more lives in more places, if it is not executed Mass." The kids, mostly of color from the inner city of Boston, properly, it could also cause ICW to lose its intimate mode didn't relate to Jon. One day while the boys were playing soccer, of operation, arguably the biggest factor for current success. Jon saw his opportunity. After showing them some tricks, Jon Furthermore, failure in Philadelphia risks hurting ICW beyond eamed their attention. He started to break through the trust repair, thus closing the doors not only to Philadelphia's high barrier by playing soccer and lifting weights with them. Dur- impact players but also to ICW students in Boston as well. ing this time, he got to kxw them for who they were as people Without ICW, many might not have any option but to turn back beyond their MS-13 label and learned from them something that to the streets for survival. And on the streets, the six-month forever changed his perspective. outlook for these young men is jail or death. I recognized what I believed to be confusion benveen The Beginnings of a Social Entrepreneur lack of care and lack of hope. People call them thurgs. Jon grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, a small, wealthy, sub gang members, criminals, and whatever other word they urban town that provided him with plenty of opportunities. went to throw out to basically write them off. because they think they don't care and thar you can't really do 1 grew up in a family and community with connections and much for someone who doesn't care what I saw was very opportunity. I went to college because everyone I knew went to different. No one wants to end up dead or in jail, anal yer college. That was really my only focus growing up. After working they are willing to lose their life to a bullet or jail to be with ICW students, I recognize how much I look for granted." there for each other, to care for each other. I saw this College was Jon's primary focus. He figured he would really genuine form of care and I saw what was lacking graduate, start a career and a family of his own, and live the was not care, but hope. That realization was empowering American dream like his parents and all the people he grew because hope is something that I felt I could do something up with. With the luxury of being able to choose from various about, and more importantly, we as a society could do extracurricular activities, Jon took up many hobbies, including Something about soccer. He excelled at specer, and after graduating from high school, I was recruited to play for Bryant University. At S'8" Spending time with the young people eventually helped Jon and 160 pounds. Jon had always been an undersized athlete. To discover what drove them to the streets. They lacked lope and compete at the collegiate level, he started taking weightlifting opportunity and a network to access opportunity. These young very seriously. His dedication to weightlifting throughout his people only have the support of their fellow gang members. undergraduate years led him to certification and his first job as which leads to gang activity and street violence. If the lack of a personal trainer hope and opportunity led to violence, what is it that drains hope Jon started studying to be a personal trainer after college. He and opportunity? enjoyed the science behind the sport and later, the relationships I started to recognize the system. (Our students are born he built with his clients. During the first year after graduation, Jon's main commitment was his work with the AmeriCorps info families and communities that are segregated and isolated. Unlike myself, they have to worry about rent, program. Athletes in Service in America. He was stationed at they have to worry about food, they have to worry about clothes. There's no wry that school can be their only focus. So they turn to the streets to solve the real challenges thar they face today, because they don't act to see fomorrow unless they take care of those short-term obstacles that are about the young people he met during AmeriCorps. He had in their way. Rather than leveraging an education to find a enjoyed working with them and was still passionate about mak- meaningful career, they find themselves in jail. They come ing an impact on their lives. Using sports and lifting had worked out more segregated and more isolated. All along the way to connect with them then, so why couldn't it work again? everyone calls them a lad decision-maker, when in reality, Once the idea that would become ICW started forming in his they den have a single goud option to choose from. This whole system gets perpetuated every time someone like head, Jon decided to take a big risk. He put himself in debt to myself during that year in AmeriCorps) was told stay go to Babson College to get his MBA. To this day, Jon says it away from them: "Dum cross this street: it's dangerous was one of the best decisions of his life. Going to school for an over there." That very avoidance creates segregated and MBA is what allowed his idea to grow. Jon started piloting his isolated pockets of communities which leads to a lack of business plan while at Babson. He was able to use an acquain- resources, lack of opportunity inequality proverty, and the Tance's gym space for two hours, three days a week, to start need for the streets in the first place, which manifests itsel! working with their target students. While in his pilot period, in wolence. Jon received a piece of criticism that led to the basic approach for running ICW today. Jon was told that he had no idea what Jon had always been considered a good decision-maker he was doing, and he agreed. "Since I had no clue what I was by society, but he realized this was because he only ever had doing, I really only had one option. To LISTEN. I think too good options to choose from. On the other hand, society looks often, especially in the nonprofit sector, we try to solve prob- down on his students" decisions and punishes them through lems from our own privileged perspective, that somehow if the criminal justice system. While these decisions might lead we can get kids onto the path we followed, their lives will be to actions that break the law, the decisions themselves are not better-it worked for me, so it should work for everyone else. illogical. Their decision-making process isn't what is flawed, it This is flawed logic." is their options, limited by a society that has written them off. Jon started listening to his students and realized his original Getting to know these young men helped Jon start to recognize business plan wasn't going to work for ICW's target population. the system of segregation and isolation that left this population Originally, Jon thought he would reduce violence in the target with only bad options. Thus, leading to street violence with population by using weightlifting to get kids into the Olympics death or jail as the most likely outcomes. or win college athletic scholarships. After listening to the stu- Many of Jon's realizations took place during his time in dents he was working with, Jon soon realized his original idea AmeriCorps, but it took him a while to develop those ideas and was deeply flawed. "Knowing this was the population we were start thinking of a solution. When Jon's year in AmeriCorps working with and reducing violence was our end goal, there's exted, his work as a personal trainer expanded from a side gig probably a million different ways to get there. To succeed, we to his full-time job. After another year or two of working for needed to let the students define their own path and shape the himself as a trainer, at age 24, he had a full schedule of clients organization off that. Like I said, I don't know what they have and a comfortable salary. Jon was uneasy with the fact that he to go through on a day-to-day basis." had reached this top level of success in the field at such a young It turns out, just getting these young men in the gym, off the age. He knew he could continue like this and lead a comfortable streets, lifting together and building a community not based on life, but he wasn't satisfied. Jon decided to pursue the idea that violence, was much more realistic, effective, and far-reaching in he had been contemplating since AmeriCorps. impact than trying to get them college scholarships or Olympic glory. This change in philosophy led Jon to make adjustments. The Founding Story of ICW including letting go of some of his original coaches because There isn't one moment that Jon can point to as the moment they were too focused on the lifting and not on the connection when the idea for ICW came to him. Rather, the idea started and community aspect that I needed to center around. Jon forming as a combination of his life experiences and his feeling now viewed the gym and weightlifting as a hook" to attract his of being stuck in a career at age 24. While Jon was talking to target population. He built a community and support system to one of his personal training clients about his concems, he real accomplish the larger mission of helping his students redirect ized he could use his traiter skillset to make a social impact. Although he had lost contact with them. Jon had not forgotten their lives. After this change in model, ICW really started to here can do is do what they can do for these kids. Do what you grow into what it is today can do and don't ever give up on these kids." ICW has developed four main sequential stages that stu- How ICW Works dents work through: Trust, Hope, Social Capital, and finally InnerCity Weightlifting's entire philosophy is centered around Economie Mobility. Originally. ICW sought students through a promise. "What this organization is about, is that we can't court referrals, street workers, and juvenile detention centers. promise to solve (our students') short-term problems, because Now, ICW has grown enough in Boston that it only needs to they are too severe and honestly, we can't hope to fix them. What rely on word-of-mouth, their current students bringing friends we do promise and commit to is being by their side so they don't to the program. ICW works hard to ensure they are only admit- have to solve these problems alone. That became pretty powing students who are truly in their target demographic, which erful." As Joe Sierra, a student tumed trainer through ICW's is that 1% who are most susceptible to street vislence. Most of program notes: ICW students have shot, been shot, dove significant time in jail, and come from a family that makes less than $10,000 a year. When I talk to these kids, some of them have been shot If someone is referred to ICW who is not in this demographic, already. I ask them what they want to be when they grow ICW refers them to another program. up, and they don't even have an answer. They shrurg their ICW determines if a potential student is part of their target shoulders. Some of them say they want to move bricks, you demographic during an extensive screening process. To main- know kilos of cocaine ar her in. They think they're going tain the safety and security of everyone inside the gym, it is ter be Pablo Escobar. "You are not going to be Pablo Esco- imperative that ICW not mix tival gangs. During the screening har." I try to help them. I tell them what I've been the what I've seen. process, ICW must establish the student's identity within gang dynamics to ensure that it is safe to bring them into the gym Working individually with each person allows ICW to help We recognize the fact that we just don't know. We've students discover another way to live their lives. The incar- developed a process that takes everything off-site, and we ceration recidivism rate for ICW's target population before don't give away our locations publicly. We incorporate starting the program is 80%. Among those students who con our students in that process. If we don't know the person, tinue through the program long enough to develop hope and real our next step is to ask the people we are working with: alternatives, the rate drops to 8.2%. One of the reasons ICW do you know this persem? Do you know this group? Our is effective in reducing these rates is that they do not give up on own people actually have a big say in whether or not that their students. They do not require students to make it through person ends up at the gym, and it allows us to make sure all its stages consecutively or to "graduate" from the program. we are keeping everything safe even before we know the new candidate Many students are arrested, shot, or stabbed at different points while in the program, but Jon and his staff stand by their promise to help their students no matter what-visiting them in prison or Angel La Court, who has been with the program for six years in the hospital, going to court appearances, and writing to them and is now a certified trainer and student intake coordinator while they are behind bars. ICW also provides formal weight laughed when asked about his own screening process. lifting training so that students may achieve certification for a career as a weight trainet. The program also helps students who My friend brought me to the gwrt, and I mer Jon for the did not finish high school to earn a GED. This promise applies first time. But, there was a whole process before I mer Jon that took place without me even knowing. My boy to students in all stages of the program. Once ICW reaches out [friend asked Jon if I could come before he even asked to someone, the staff is there for that student no matter what. me to come. Somente did intake with me, and there was Cali, an ICW student who has started his own personal training a whole process and it was just crury the way it worked. program and attends Bunker Hill Community College, agrees I was like "S*** when was I going to be notified that this with this philosophy. "At the end of the day, all anyone around was going on?Jon didn't tell me until a couple months later when I asked "How come I didn't go through that intake prexcess?" and he was like "You did, you jest dieln" know it happened," and I was like "That's pretty much dedication and just showing up and really being cool"... I understood why too, because it was for every disciplined about leaming about fitness, doing some of the one's safety exercises yourself, learning about program design, and stuff like that. I took it seriously coming through the door.** In his current role as student intake coordinator, Angel helps Stage three, Social Capital , is where ICW's in-house personal with the screening process by reaching out to potential students, trainer training comes into play. The end goal for this stage is talking to them, and learning about their background and goals. making meaningful connectices and building genuine relation- The initial stage, Trust, takes place mostly outside of the ships with clients to bridge social capital across socioeconomic gym as part of the screening process. Within the first stage, ICW classes. This is when student networks really start to grow, they measures a student's success through his willingness to com- are training clients who come from six or seven figure back- municate. The first big step is to get their phone number, which grounds, Boston area professionals who work in finance or large already requires preliminary trust from the student. Then ICW corporations. Building these relationships eventually connects looks at the communication ratio they have with each student students to opportunities either directly from or within the cli- Does the student call or text back when ICW reaches out? At ents' extensive networks. Furthermore, all ICW students have a minimum, ICW likes to have at least eight points of contact access to everyone and everything in ICW. This provides all within a month with each student. This can be by phone or text, students with a network, no matter their stage or whether they appearance at the gym, cea car ride to and from the gym. During have built a personal training clientele. For example, Jon found this stage, ICW staff is building trust with students by listening out that Mack, one of ICW's students, was interested in con- to them and breaking down small barriers that are preventing sulting, Jon knew someone else's client who worked for a com them from coming into the gym. sulting firm, and they set up an opportunity for Mack to shadow someone at this company. Opportunities like these eventually Once you start listening, you hear that someone is ach- lead students to potential jobs. While these connections with ally interested, but they can't ger here safely. So I say clientele from the opposite socioeconomic background impact "Well, I'll pick you up tomorrow if you want." As you students greatly, clients are affected as well. ICW sends out listen, you start hearing how someone wants to come to the gym and work out, but they don't have a pair of surveys to its clients, and many say their perspective on this shorts. Well, we can buy you a pair of shorts. Someone population has changed. Clients consider many of the trainers might come here and more often than not, they haven' to be friends and vice versa. When asked about his relationships eaten thar day - let's go out for lunch. A lot of our guys, with his clients, Cali lit up. "Oh my clients?! Me and my clients they get out of jail, and they don't have an ID and yer are homies! Yeah, we're good, we're friends! they'll still have probation fees and they need a job, but Many clients meet with their student trainers outside of the they can get a job without an ID and they don't have gym, inviting them to dinner or some other activity. The gap any money. We take them and buy the ID for them. By between these two populations begins to be bridged and an listening you start to solve problems and earn some altered. positive perception starts to spread. "To be successful one's trust in these seemingly simple ways, which are we always need high-net-worth clients to come. We run corpo actually pretty profound. If you can't pay your probation rate training programs to try to bridge the gap between people of fees and you can't get a job, you are left with one choice: go back to the streets and solve your problems the way wealth and people of poverty. If they don't come together, you katerw how can't grow--we need them to grow, they need us to grow--we can't do it separately. Stage two, Hope, is all about engagement in the gym. Sue The last stage. Economic Mobility, is what ICW defines as cess in the second stage is eight engagements beyond just small earning over $30,000 a year. In this stage, success is measured conversation. Once students start coming to the gym regularly by how much money students are making. ICW knows how and are comfortable at ICW. they start to have hope that long. much students still in the program are earning and can estimate term goals are possible. Then they move on to the third stage. what students with jobs outside the organization are making. In As Cali notes. "You have to go through a process that allows addition to income and long-term employment, ICW also looks you to grow through the levels. The majority of that process is af recidivism rates and life stability as measures of success