Program areas at Crim Fitness Foundation
Neighborhood impact snap-ed and foodcorps: nutrition programming works in all The flint community schools and 4 additional academy schools in The flint area. Snap-ed nutrition education uses a myplate curriculum to increase The consumption of fruit and vegetables and increase daily physical activity of both students and parents/caregivers. Foodcorps (americorps) service members teach garden based nutrition education to students in 8 flint community schools and work to tend and maintain school gardens. Safe routes to school: in 2023 nutrition coordinators supported bike clubs at 4 schools and taught bike safety and repair skills to students. Additionally The safe routes to school manager works to support active transportation policy changes to ensure students can access routes that are safe for commuting to and from school. In assocaition with srts goals, in 2023, The Crim started a flint bike coalition which is a socail meet up for bike enthusiasts in The county to discuss how to make riding safer. School gardens: in 2023, The Crim continued to use foodcorps service members to support The school gardens. In 2023 The Crim also received funding from The whole kids Foundation and community Foundation of greater flint to make physical improvements to flint school gardens. Michigan health endowment fund: in 2021 The Crim started with partners, a flint and genesee food policy council. The food policy council is still in The early stages of development, but The council has 30 partners engaged actively. The vision for The food policy council is a robust and sustain able local food system that provides all genesee county residents with preferred, culturally relevant, affordable, and healthy food. The Michigan health endowment fund also is supporting work around three crim-led community coalitions, safe and active genesee for everyone, traffic taming task force, and school garden committees. These groups have engaged multi-sector stakeholders around policy, systems, and built environment changes. Through this funding source The Crim also had an urbanism community engagement event called better block where we temporarily demonstrated built environment changes like public space activation, bike lanes, and pedestrian streets and got feedback from area residents.
Race and training The hap caresource Crim festival of races began in 1977 as The "bobby Crim race for special olympics" by then-michigan speaker of The house, bobby Crim. The inaugural race's mission was to promote and raise funds for Michigan special olympics. Over The past 47 years, "The Crim" has evolved into The hap Crim festival of races, as well as other events/races in a year-round series, and The Crim Fitness Foundation. While it still draws elite racers from all over The world, it has grown immensely in numbers and in its mission. The festival now serves to promote and celebrate healthy, active lifestyles all year long for people of all Fitness levels, as well as functions as a tool to bring awareness to The work of The Foundation and The promotion of all things related to preventative health. The hap caresource Crim festival of races, which takes place The fourth saturday of august, includes The following events: 10-mile, 5-mile and 5 kilometers, Michigan one-mile, and a teddy bear trot for youth racers. The Crim's flagship 10-mile race has grown to be one of The largest 10-mile races in The nation and The largest in The state of Michigan. The event is widely recognized as one of The most positive and important annual events that takes place in The city of flint. In 2023, The Crim was proud to return to nearly pre-pandemic numbers. The festival of races had approximately 9,000 racers take to The streets of flint to run,walk, and celebrate. Also in 2023, nearly 1,300 people committed to an active spring and summer by joining The Crim training program. The program's goal is to help participants to train and prepare to complete a hap caresource Crim festival of races event in august. For 15 weeks, The crimfit adult training program becomes an integral part of a participant's life and its benefits carry over into many areas. These participants also include an additional mission-based component of The Crim training program, The flint community training program. The program applies The traditional Crim training model and makes it available to people in The city of flint, through partnership with churches and schools, who may not be otherwise able to pay for The program or have transportation to meet for group workouts. Participants can register at a drastically reduced rate, and train in or close to their own neighborhood. Other events that were hosted in 2023 include The marti austin kids' classic (400 participants), The atwood stadium 5k and 10k (800 participants, and The 5k on The runway (about 700 participants). All of these events will return in 2024, along with two new races, The mott miles challenge which sold out in its inaugral year with 300 runners, and The halloween hustle 5k which will take place in october 2024. We expect all of these events to continue to grow as we approach our 50th anniversary in 2027
The Crim Fitness Foundation serves as The lead agency to reintroduce The community education model into The flint area schools. The purpose is to use schools as hubs that bring together partnerships and resources to serve both students and The community at large. Its integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. In 2022 The Crim continued to lead The strategy district-wide at 13 school sites. The project includes an on-site community school director and use of national service members to help develop partnerships that deliver services directly at The school that are open to everyone. The Crim sports program provides sports programs to youth ages 5-13 with fundamental sports clinics and leagues at not cost at 13 sites across The city. The Crim offers 10 different sports to over 10,000 youth each year.
Mindfulness initiative in 2023, The mindfulness initiative team reached a total of 3,394 participants. Participants were served in a various ways across five sectors - civic, community, youth & education, business and health. Programs included free community yoga classes for youth, adults and seniors; social emotional learning for incarcerated individuals; profefssional development for educators; evidence based mindfulness training and workshops; and Crim fellowship and ambassador programs. Evaluation efforts were supported by researchers at Michigan state university and brwon university. The mindful advisory board continues with thirty-five community leaders. In initiative is also supported by a growing mindful flint network with 95 ambassadors, 12 Crim mindful fellows, 11 communtiy yoga/minfulness teachers and 5 sector working groups (business, health, education, community, and civic). The network helps to ensure this work is as inclusive, relevant, impactful and sustainable as possible.