Partner Spotlight: GirlTrek

Over the last year, the Peloton team has been working hard to become an anti-racist organization. We announced the Peloton Pledge, our four-year, $100M investment to fight racial injustice and inequity in our world and to promote health and wellbeing for all. One of the pillars of the Pledge is our commitment to invest $20M in nonprofit organizations around the world that are dedicated to this cause. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to spotlight GirlTrek, one of our community partners and learn about their mission.

When you first meet new partners, volunteers, or community Members, how do you usually describe GirlTrek’s mission?

(GirlTrek) GirlTrek is America’s largest nonprofit focused on the health of Black women and girls. Far more than a walking group, GirlTrek is a campaign to heal intergenerational trauma, fight systemic racism, and transform Black lives; as women organize walking teams, they also mobilize community members to support advocacy efforts and lead a civil-rights-inspired health movement. GirlTrek’s membership is currently at over ONE MILLION and growing every day.

Can you describe a few ways that you focus on the health of Black women and girls? Any recent programs or partnerships that you’re particularly proud of?

(GT) GirlTrek hosts a series of programs centered around encouraging collective health and healing. Among our most popular offerings is Black History Bootcamp, a viral walking podcast hosted by GirlTrek co-founders Vanessa and Morgan who unpack lessons around a different moment or figure in Black history during 30-minute walk and talk episode. Listeners are encouraged to hit the streets for 21 days to walk, learn and listen along to radical healing tips and history lessons that will benefit their daily lives. The series currently comprises five seasons and all episodes are available everywhere podcasts are found. Black History Bootcamp continues to perform in the top 10% of podcasts worldwide. In addition to our digital programming, we have a heavy focus on grassroots organizing, service and care. In the past two years we’ve trained nearly 10,000, everyday Black women to serve as public health activists and organizers. They do everything from lead walking teams to advocating for policy changes at the local level. We’ve also been scaling care to Black women across the country in innovative ways, including offering a round-the-clock support hotline staffed by skilled, compassionate volunteers who we have trained in mental health first aid response through our Care Crusaders program. The volunteer team, many of whom are social workers and therapists, sourced through our active membership base, take support calls and also do proactive support to women in our network, such as wellness calls to members and financial support, via our #GirlTrekGivesBack fund for women who are experiencing hardships. We recently deployed support for women impacted by the recent hurricanes.

How are you working with Peloton?

(GT) In partnership with Peloton, GirlTrek will launch a nationwide campus takeover to inspire a new generation to walk in the footsteps of a civil rights legacy. In support of this goal, GirlTrek will recruit, select and train 100 College Ambassadors to represent 25 historically Black Colleges and Universities. Ambassadors will be the bullhorns on campus, promoting radical self-care and serving as the public faces of a targeted campaign to inspire 10,000 college aged women to take their first walk with GirlTrek.

It’s great to see how much GirlTrek works with the community. How do you think about the role of community?

(GT) Community is central to everything GirlTrek does. It plays the most critical role in defining who we are and what we do. GirlTrek was built to serve a community of Black women whose lives are on the line. Black women are dying because of preventable illnesses like heart disease. Black women are facing high levels of stress because we are overworked and undervalued. It is up to us to save ourselves - and GirlTrek is here to remind Black women that they can achieve healing, joy and radical self-care through the act of daily walking and sisterhood. The movement is driven by community leaders in cities across the country who organize group treks, a leadership team that is constantly finding new ways to serve the needs of its members and co-founders who are passionate about the health and healing of Black women everywhere and who know that when Black women walk, things change.