Closing The Fitness Gap For Teens With Disabilities
As a first-year special education teacher, I’ve seen the true injustice that stems from a lack of information and opportunity when it comes to those with disabilities. It’s a fundamental issue in our society to assume that people with disabilities are not fit for a task before being given the opportunity to try, regardless of success. After all, it is impossible to achieve something, when you’ve never been exposed to it.
In 2016, I served as a Diller Teen Fellow where I was tasked to create a project to positively impact my community. It was through this process that I first noticed this injustice – a lack of information and opportunity provided to those with disabilities in the health and wellness space. While I saw many sports and fitness programs for younger audiences with disabilities, there was a lack of opportunity for teenagers. This gap left teens with insufficient tools and knowledge when it came to addressing their physical and mental health. That’s when JCC Chicago’s All Star Abilities (ASA) was born.
The program strives to close the gap by pairing teens with and without disabilities together for a peer-to-peer fitness program at Bernard Weinger JCC. It aims to foster a community of support and encouragement and a chance for teens to strengthen their muscles and minds when it comes to health and wellness.
After a year of developing the program, it took off in 2017 as students across Chicagoland suburbs came together once a week for workout sessions, like yoga, strength training, and light cardio. During the first year the program ran, I volunteered as a fitness peer and I can still remember seeing disabled and non-disabled teens working together to learn how to check into a facility, use the locker room, access equipment, and navigate a typical gym environment. Fitness facilities can be overwhelming to anyone at times, and it was beautiful to see All Star Abilities participants getting a chance to experience it and learn from it. I was finally seeing the essential impact ASA had by providing teens with disabilities the same opportunities and access to physical well-being as their non-disabled peers.
I’m excited to see the program continue to provide an avenue for participants to gain independence, strengthen their physical and mental health and build new friendships! Especially during a time of Covid-19, connection with peers is more important than ever and ASA will continue to form and foster a social network of genuine friendships built through common experience.
Winter Session for All Star Abilities runs Sundays, February 27 – April 3. If you’d like to learn more about the program and register, sign up at jccchicago.org/asa.
About Grace Goodman
Grace Goodman is a special education teacher in the Wilmette School District. Her family started attending JCC Chicago in the late ’90s with her mother, Addie Goodman, teaching swim lessons and her father manning the front desk. The J has been a home away from home for Grace and her family. It’s where she had her first ballet recital and her first camp inclusion experience. She says, “JCC Chicago has embraced all forms of my family’s Jewish identity; whether we were reciting Friday night blessing or driving to Shabbat on the Lake, we knew that there was a place for us.”