Foundation Friday: Building bright futures & mental health through fitness

When people think about treating or managing their mental health, therapy, journaling and reading are often among the first solutions that come to mind. While those are all valuable tools, one of the most effective outlets is often overlooked: physical fitness.

At the Lift US Foundation, based in Oakland, leaders emphasize the mental benefits of exercise for adolescents through a strength-training-focused approach. Through its partnership with the NBA Foundation, the organization has expanded its efforts to empower young people and, as founder Mike Jenkins describes it, “create superheroes.”

“The need in the community is very foundational about strength and health in general, physical and mental,” Jenkins said. “I locked in on a term I like to call generational health, and what that means is the young people in our program become the healthiest in their families, and they take those values going forward in their own.”

As for InnerCity Weightlifting, which is based in Boston and Chicago, the organization uses personal training to help people affected by systemic barriers and past challenges build a new path forward. The nonprofit helps individuals with histories of gang involvement earn personal training certifications before connecting them with paying clients.

Though some people may not want to pursue personal training full-time, ICW still provides them with fitness tools they can carry throughout life while also helping guide their next steps into the workforce.

“Learn how to work out safely, learn how to give your friends a workout and then tell us what you need, what kind of jobs you’re interested in, what’s holding you back from some stability,” said ICW’s head of development Ian Kilpatrick.

Fitness to opportunity

From the ground up, Lift US focuses on teaching young people how to understand their bodies through fitness, nutrition education, counseling, mentorship and mental health support, all while helping them develop a future-focused mindset beyond the program.

Seeing a program participant progress through each phase and ultimately succeed is Lift US’s ultimate goal.

Rucker Johnson Jr. joined the organization at age 10 with a passion for science, art and drawing. Over time, he developed a love for weightlifting as well, eventually earning a spot on Team USA and setting his sights on representing the country at the 2028 Olympic Games.

“A complete human. A complete person, physically strong, mentally strong, academically strong, and not relying on getting a football or baseball scholarship. They are just doing it to empower themselves,” Jenkins said.

Johnson Jr. also branched out to the Hidden Genius Project, an Oakland-based nonprofit that trains and mentors young Black men in technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The organization has partnered with the NBA Foundation for several years.

Job pathways beyond fitness

As mentioned before, ICW ultimately helps place participants into jobs even outside the fitness industry, with their interactions with clients playing a key role.

The organization has seen numerous trainers transition into different industries simply by networking and performing well with the people they train. “We had guys get jobs at Toyota because a training client was a manager at Toyota, we’ve had a client start a dog grooming business and hire her trainer as one of the first employees,” said Kilpatrick.

The organization also builds partnerships with corporations such as UPS and Home Depot to streamline job pathways for participants.

Looking ahead, ICW is also focusing on creating more in-house managerial roles for participants who may not want to become full-fledged trainers. Either way, the organization provides volunteers with a sense of belonging and direction that helps them rebuild stability in their lives.

At their core, both organizations aim to build belonging and long-term success through fitness, which is a great place to start.

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