Community Power!

Harnessing the power of collective outreach with the Community First initiative

There’s an African proverb I love that says ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ It is with this mindset that healthy communities are set up to thrive with mutual support, accountability and goal achievement. At WeightWatchers, community is at the heart of everything we do. Our founder deeply believed in the power of community, launching the first workshop in her apartment- bringing people together to stay accountable and supported to achieve their weight health goals.?

We’ve recently leveraged this core principle (and WeightWatchers value: Move Together) as a way to further define our social impact programming with a goal of decreasing the rates of comorbidity associated with weight health in underrepresented communities. Research shows that these communities face staggeringly worse health outcomes than their white counterparts, such as disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, certain forms of cancer, and other chronic diseases. This isn’t a new endeavor for us. Over the past three years, we’ve given over $250,000 to non-profit organizations doing health and wellness work in underrepresented communities.?

This year we’re embarking on the next exciting chapter of our social impact journey by deepening our reach, one community at a time, with a program called the Community First Initiative. This program provides hyper-local, intensified weight health support to those in historically under-resourced areas, subsequently increasing equitable access to evidence-based, behavioral, clinical, and functional solutions for all. Through local partnerships, tailored coaching, and community-led education campaigns, we aim to further increase access to weight health information, while decreasing rates of misinformation and comorbidities associated with obesity.?

We launched our inaugural Community First program on the Southside of Chicago. With support from the The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center , we’ve been able to offer accessible WeightWatchers workshops and ancillary programming for local residents. Through our Wellness Impact Awards, we’re extending our service offerings and beneficiaries in this community by providing $20,000 grants to two local organizations doing incredible work:

• Dion’s Chicago Dream - An organization with a mission to create financial, physical, and emotional stability by combating food insecurity while addressing food deserts in neighborhoods across the city.
• Healthy Hood Chicago? - An organization that aims to bridge the 20-year life expectancy gap that disproportionately affects Black and Brown neighborhoods by addressing the high-level needs in these communities, from fitness classes, mental health services, and youth education to professional development

And with continued support from a previous Wellness Award winner, Sista Afya, we’re feeling really inspired by the infinite possibilities we'll have to extend holistic care and impact for Southside residents. Together, we’ll continue to cultivate relationships, understand unique needs, increase the number of services provided and lives impacted.

This weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to see the impact of these investments first-hand. I attended the Southside Studio WeightWatchers workshop at DuSable and spent time with 40 enthusiastic members who shared their appreciation for having programs like this in their community to help them reach their weight health goals. One member, who was attending her very first workshop, shared that community was the missing link in her weight loss journey and expressed gratitude for having a local community to help her stay on track.

I also had the pleasure of attending an awards banquet hosted by Sista Afya, recognizing local non-profit organizations supporting health and wellness for Black women. One of the award winners summed it up perfectly- the only way to win is to do this work together. We couldn’t agree more!

As with all of my posts, this is not intended to be a finish line moment. We’re just at the beginning of this journey with so much more to build and learn- including the future expansion of this model in other cities and securing large-scale partnerships. We look forward to keeping you posted on our progress along the way. We know that the partnerships and friendships we’re building will open up new opportunities to go after this work in a scaled way. This is the power of community- we look forward to harnessing it to drive the change that is desperately needed to ensure that everyone has equitable access to the long, healthy lives that they richly deserve.?

Cheers to community power!

(PS: If you have any interest in supporting this work, there are so many ways to engage, starting by supporting our Wellness Impact Awardees. Check out their organizations- help them thrive!).