According to the GirlTREK website the organization is “the largest health movement and nonprofit organization for Black women and girls in the United States.” Founders Vanessa Garrison and T. Morgan Dixon met in Los Angeles as college students in 1996. They say they bonded over 2PAC, Nikki Giovanni and their mutual inability to say no to smothered porkchops.
From the beginning they were focused on self-care. In 2010 they challenged friends and family to “walk with us to heal our bodies, inspire our daughters and reclaim our neighborhoods,” and GirlTREK was born.
2011 – 2012 word spread, “volunteers caught fire” and women around the country begin to organize walks. In 2012 GirlTREK officially became a nonprofit 501c3 and received its first major financial support from Teach for America.
In 2020 Girl Trek achieved the goal of inspiring 1 million Black women to walk. They have set their sights on reversing the impacts of chronic diseases on Black women’s health and increasing the life expectancy of Black women by 10 years, within 10 years. Their goal is to accomplish this by individuals pledging to walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day 5 days a week.
Currently GirlTREK has 1.3 million women in 49 countries who are participating in this pledge. Of these women, before GirlTREK only 27% were walking at all and less than 18% were walking at least 5 days a week. As a result of their participation in GirlTREK their percentages have increased to 95% and 38%, respectively.
Above and beyond these accomplishments the organization has facilitated local, national and international community engagement and outreach initiatives. GirlTREK’s Black History Bootcamp podcast was recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences with a Webby Award for Best Live Podcast 2022 and a 2023 award as Best Podcast Series.
The podcast, to date, has nearly 3 million downloads. Their DaughtersOf multimedia broadcast conversational series centers on the stories of Black women to “celebrate the traditions of our foremothers and the self-care traditions they have passed down.” It featured conversations with Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni, Dr. Bernice A. King and Ilyasah Shabazz. The New York Times called it a “must-see event.”
The organization’s importance and achievements have garnered recognition not only from The New York Times but also praise from Oprah Winfrey from the 2018 Ted Talks stage in Vancouver Canada. Some of GirlTREK’s supporters and partners include the American Heart Association, REI, Kaiser Permanente, Lane Bryant, Patagonia and Peloton. To join the movement or learn more visit https://www.girltrek.org