Podcasts about innercity weightlifting

Jon Feinman is the founder and executive director of InnerCity Weightlifting, a non-profit that helps at risk-youth by providing meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal training.    InnerCity Weightlifting, founded in 2010, now has 15 employees supporting 199 students.    In light of George Floyd's death and the protests going on, Jon also provides his own perspective to people on his own experiences supporting his students within the justice system. InnerCity Weighlifting's Website: https://www.innercityweightlifting.org/   InnerCity Weightlifting Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innercity_weightlifting/?hl=en My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/   Grateful Living Website: https://www.gratefulliving4.com/

In this episode of our special series, Catalysts During the Crisis, we talk with Jon Feinman, CEO and Founder of InnerCity Weightlifting (ICW). Having previously talked with Jon, this conversation focuses on how ICW has adapted and changed due to COVID-19 and his response to important problems that ICW faces on a daily basis. Jon’s work is a clear example of change agents throughout the city forging ahead to accomplish their missions, and solving new problems along the way.  If you would like to support the work of InnerCity Weightlifting, you can go to their website. Due to COVID-19, ICW is now offering virtual personal and group workouts. If you would like to support the work of ICW and sign up for their workouts, email iank@innercityweightlifting.org. 

On today’s Catalyst for Change, we talk to Jon Feinman, Founder and CEO of InnerCity Weightlifting (ICW). Working with those most impacted by gun violence and incarceration in the City of Boston, Jon works to provide economic mobility and social inclusion through InnerCity Weightlifting’s Impact Model. Jon received his MBA from Babson College in 2010 and subsequently founded ICW, following his work with AmeriCorp, and as a personal trainer. ICW and Jon’s work has been recognized numerous times.  He was named as one of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce 2014 Ten Outstanding Young Leaders, and as a 2012 Social Innovator by Social Innovation Forum.  He also was awarded the Ernst & Young 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year New England Award in the social entrepreneurship category.  We talk to Jon about his work with InnerCity Weightlifting, its outstanding impact over the past few years. If you would like to learn more about InnerCity Weightlifting, please visit ICW’s website.  Due to COVID-19, ICW is now offering virtual personal and group workouts. If you would like to support the work of ICW and sign up for their workouts, email iank@innercityweightlifting.org.

Juan-Pablo Mas, Partner, Action Potential Venture Capital Juan-Pablo is a partner at Action Potential Venture Capital in Palo Alto, CA, and invests in companies that are pioneering bioelectronic medicines and neuromodulation technologies. Juan-Pablo was previously an investor at Lightstone Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures, where he focused on therapeutic medical devices, mobile health, and biopharmaceutical investments. There he served as a Board Observer at various portfolio companies, including Ardian, Twelve, Holaira, Miramar Labs, Cabochon Aesthetics, SetPoint Medical, and Relievant Medsystems. Prior to investing, Juan-Pablo led efforts in R&D and Strategy in Medtronic's CardioVascular Division, including Pipeline Strategy, White-Space exploration, Business Development, and M&A integration efforts. He was named “Medtronic Inventor of The Year” in 2008, and has 30+ patents, granted or pending. Juan-Pablo also launched Effient (prasugrel) during his tenure on the Global Brand Strategy team at Eli Lilly & Co. Juan-Pablo earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also conducted research in the Neurology Department at Stanford Hospital, while completing an M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. There he worked on biometric signal processing applications such as neural-prosthetics, and EMG-driven feedback systems, and improved ICD algorithms. Juan-Pablo currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Boston-based non-profit, InnerCity Weightlifting.

This week's Babson Built focuses on InnerCity Weightlifting, a community and network as well as a source of education, job-training, and employment for young people who have previously been incarcerated or connected to gangs.

Zach Sloan is the COO of InnerCity Weightlifting, which reduces youth violence by connecting proven-risk young people with new networks and opportunities, including meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal training. They use the gym to replace segregation and isolation with economic mobility and social inclusion, disrupting the system that leads to urban street violence. https://www.innercityweightlifting.org

I don't know if the timing of this episode is more important than right now. This week’s guest and newest partner to the Milestone Mind Movement is InnerCity Weightlifting’s Founder Jon Feinman, and InnerCity Weightlifting Student Trainer, Dan Royal. This conversation is enlightening, and one I, if you don’t mind, recommend you listen to more than once as well as share with family and friends. Jon and Dan are amazing people, with incredibly open-minds and hearts. They are both courageous, thoughtful and determined, both being fearless in the face of status quo.Support the show (https://www.milestonemind.com/donation)

I had a really great interview with Jon Feinman, who is the Executive Director and CEO of Innercity Weightlifting, a non-profit based in Boston. They own and operate a few gyms around the city and work with young people who have been identified as a high risk for violence. Their programs focus on social inclusion and reducing youth violence by working with these guys (mainly guys) in the gym. They connect these young people with new networks and opportunities, including meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal training. According to them, they use the gym to replace segregation and isolation with economic mobility and social inclusion, disrupting the system that leads to urban street violence. For a little bit of background, in Boston, just 1% of youth between the ages of 15-24, are responsible for over 50% of city-wide shootings. The City of Boston has identified 300 to 400 of the city’s highest risk gang affiliated youth as “most likely to be involved in a violent act.” This is called the “Pact List” and it is this group ICW strives to serve. 97% of their students have done at least 6 months of jail time, prior to enrolling at ICW. And 100% of their enrolled students report being shot, shot at, or stabbed prior to enrolling at ICW.    This interview was recorded while Jon was in one of the gyms so you’ll probably hear a few weights and grunts in the background, don’t mind them, it’s all part of creating the atmosphere! I absolutely love the work that Jon and Innercity Weightlifting are doing. They are completely flipping the typical non-profit model on its head with the way that they are running their programs but not only are they changing the lives of the students they are working with, they are changing the lives of the clients who choose to train at the gym with the students. Jon mentions in this episode that most of the clients that come to the gym have never met someone who has been in jail before. Making this introduction and fostering a connection promotes social inclusion not just for the students, but for the clients too. Excited for you to listen to this episode!   Favorite quote from episode: “At the heart of our program and how we grow, there is the assumption that we don’t know what’s best for our students and that they, know what’s best for themselves. We’re not the ones getting shot at. We’re not the ones that have done significant time in jail, even though we hire students that have although at an individual level, you can’t possibly truly understand what someone is going through. All you can do is really be there by their side and listen. And by listening you gain perspective and you are able to start to provide options that might not have existed before. And at the end of the day, it’s up to the person to decide which option is best for them.” – Jon [15:45]   People/ items mentioned in this episode: Innercity Weightlifting   Get in contact with Jon at innercityweightlifting.org   Show notes Jon gives us a bit of background about Innercity Weightlifting [05:10] “Most of our students have been shot” [07:20] “In our original business plan, it was all about weightlifting. Today we talk very little about weightlifting… it just gives us our purpose and our reason to reach out to someone, to start earning someone’s trust. It gives us a place to create hope. It gives us a community and network to start to bridge that gap and create social capital and ultimately achieve economic mobility” [15:10] What kind of misconceptions do people have about the work that Innercity Weightlifting are doing? [23:14] What does the future look like for ICW? What do they need to make that happen? [30:43] “There’s plenty of people that told me that I’m crazy and that I don’t know what I’m doing. And the bit that I took from that is that, I don’t know what I’m doing. I have never been shot. I have never done time in jail. I didn’t grow up in a family income of less than $10,000 per year. There’s no way I can understand what our students are going through, there’s no way I can ever understand. What I can do is listen and respect the challenges that they are facing. And, not try and solve every challenge either. But instead just be there, and commit to being there by someone’s side. There’s a power in that.” [37:04] Three Things [38:20]   What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Let me know in the comments!   Keywords: Social innovation, social enterprise, corporate social responsibility, technology for good, innovation, business, entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social entrepreneur, changemaker, social good, social impact, corporate innovation, intrapreneurship, volunteer, fitness, social impact, sport, gym, weightlifting, youth, violence, United States, USA

Jon Feinman tells the moving stories behind his nonprofit, Innercity Weightlifting, and how they wound up with a feature video about them on ESPN's SportsCenter. After that, Chris Savage, co-founder and CEO of Wistia, talks about their approach to marketing to drive customers -- but it's not a product that they're marketing.

Highlights of Episode 135   This is a special 6th Anniversary Episode!! This show is dedicated to InnerCity Weightlifting in Boston All proceeds from our sponsors: StrengthCoach.com, Perform Better, Athletes' Performance, Functional Movement Systems and Results Fitness will be donated to InnerCity.                                    Interviews with Josh Feinman (Program Director, InnerCity), Sarah Cahill (Coach, InnerCity), Joe Sierra (Former Student, Current Coach at InnerCity) Help Us Get Kids Off the Streets of Boston and Into the InnerCity Weightlifting Program! Limited Edition Strength Coach Podcast T-Shirt!                                         All proceeds go to InnerCity. You can only get this shirt until Nov. 25, get it now!    "Subscribe at iTunes" and Get Automatic Updates If you want to save this podcast to your computer so you can import it into your Ipod or MP3 player, Right Mouse Click to Download Now (for Mac users, press Control and click)