Women's Sports Foundation - Advocating for Themselves, By Rachel De La Rosa
"....Participants who have stayed in the program for a year or more have seen significant and positive changes in their quality of life as well as their physical health. Many of them have reported being taken off of medicine for high blood pressure and having lowered their cholesterol. They also serve as mentors to new participants by providing them with their testimonies, support and assistance. “I believe that fitness and wellness is an instrumental tool in the social and emotional development. The members of HWFFC receive fitness education....." CLICK HERE TO READ ON..


Club Industry Magazine
We Failed Them, Too, Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM Pamela Kufahl
"...Or perhaps you could follow the example of the Healthworks Fitness Centers Inc., four upscale health clubs in the Boston area that created a foundation to support the Healthworks Foundation Fitness Center for low-income and homeless women as well as pregnant teenagers. Funding for the club comes from a portion of the membership dues of the for-profit Healthworks Fitness Centers. Some of the members donate extra money or time to the center. Other money comes from Boston Marathon runners sponsored by individuals and companies...."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE


Boston Business Journal - Corporate Philanthropy Free workouts expanding at Healthworks Foundation,   Jill Lerner Journal Staff
-----------------------------------------------------------
A free fitness center created for women in the inner city has become so successful that its founder, Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women Inc., is in the process of looking to open another no-fee club.

The 3,500-square-foot Healthworks Foundation Fitness Club, located inside St. Mary's Women and Infants Center in Dorchester, opened its doors free to employees and clients of St. Mary's in January 2002.

The club has since expanded its membership to include referrals from various social services agencies and, in the process, boosted membership to 700 clients-all of whom use the facilities at no charge.

The club is an initiative of the Healthworks Foundation, which was created following a gender discrimination lawsuit brought against the Boston-based women-only fitness chain.

The 1998 lawsuit challenged the company's right to operate a women-only club, contending it was in violation of public accommodations laws of Massachusetts.

Two years and $300,000 in legal fees later, Healthworks lost the legal challenge. Ultimately, the company and its supporters persuaded legislators to pass a law allowing for single-gender fitness centers, but the experience defending its charter had a profound impact on the company and led to the creation of the foundation, says Mark Harrington, co-president of Healthworks.

The thinking, he says, was, "If we could afford to spend that kind of money for something like (the lawsuit), why don't we start to funnel it into the causes that are important to our members?"

In the beginning, Healthworks dedicated a percentage of its annual revenue to the foundation and began a scholarship program whereby inner city women were given free memberships to the company's four for-profit clubs.
But a large percentage of women who entered the scholarship program didn't complete it, largely because of the difficulty they had traveling to the clubs in the Back Bay, Brookline, Cambridge and Salem, Harrington recalls.
So Healthworks decided to bring its club to the inner city, where it opened its facility at St. Mary's. At 3,500 square feet, Harrington describes the club as a "miniature" version of Healthworks' regular 30,000-square-foot-plus clubs. The foundation fitness center has a mix of paid and volunteer staff.
Healthworks, which is opening a fifth for-profit facility in Chestnut Hill later this fall, continues to fund the foundation with a percentage of revenue equivalent to about $150,000 a year, as well as donations from vendors and its 18,000 members.

Thanks to the success of the center, Healthworks is in talks with potential site owners and has plans to open a second foundation center in Boston sometime next year, Harrington says.

"Everybody in our company feels good about it. ... There's really no reason we can't continue to expand it," Harrington says.

Copyright(c) American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.
You can view this article on the web at:
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/
2003/09/29/newscolumn3.htmL
 

Club Industry, April 1, 2003, "Bringing Fitness to the Inner Core"
The April 2003 issue of Club Industry Magazine, a publication for the health club industry, featured The Healthworks Foundation Fitness Center in Dorchester. The article provides an overview of the club’s mission and goals, as well as a look into the daily operations of the facility. Visit Club Industry online for the complete article - keywords: Healthworks Foundation.
http://www.clubindustry.com

Article in Boston's Weekly Dig
Sweat Therapy (the other kind) by Edan Howland-Cook
http://www.weeklydig.com/?ContentId=669
2002 Weekly Dig LLC