On Empowering Communities Through Fitness - A Conversation with Elana Margulies Snyderman

Episode Transcript

Claire  00:11

Hello dear listeners and welcome to The Narratives of Purpose. You are now tuned into a new episode, showcasing unique stories of changemakers, stories of people who are contributing to make a difference in society. This show was created to amplify social impact by sharing individual journeys of ordinary people who I believe are making extraordinary impact within their communities and around the world. My name is Claire Murigande. I am your host on this podcast. If you want to be inspired to take action, then look no further; you are in the right place. So get comfortable and listen to my conversations.

 

Claire  00:59

Today's episode features Elana Margulies Snyderman. Elena is the co-founder of Phyt Cares, a minority and women-led nonprofit empowering underserved communities through fitness. Fit cares focuses especially on educating youth and communities in New York City and Puerto Rico. I invite you to take a moment and share your feedback on our show by giving us a review on Apple podcasts. This will help other listeners find our show and further amplify the stories we bring on the narratives of preppers you might want to sign up for our monthly newsletter, so you can stay informed firsthand about all our activities, but also get previews of upcoming guests. Simply head to our website, that's narratives-of-purpose.podcastpage.io. And for now, let's get into the discussion with Elena.

 

Claire  02:06

Hello, Elena, and welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

 

Elena  02:09

Hey, Claire, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. On behalf of our Phyt Cares founder and president Jonas Serrano, and myself as co founder, we're honoured to be interviewed for your podcast

 

Claire  02:21

To give a bit of background first before you introduce yourself. So Phyt Cares is all about educating youth and kids and empowering them through fitness. But before you tell me more about that, especially the name because the way you write it it's not 'fit', like fitness fit, but it's PH fit. Tell me a little bit about this and yourself.

 

Elena  02:40

So I am the co-founder of Phyt Cares. And we launched in 2013, after the founder and president Jonas Serrano through his business Phyt Gym had always been training his clients' children. And then the natural evolution was to form a nonprofit to give back to communities initially in New York City and with my background, doing media, press and marketing he asked me to join him as his co founder in this venture about 10 years ago, which has been an amazing journey, and I'm honoured to partner alongside with him and our impact has been immense. And I guess we'll go into a deeper dive as you ask more questions. With regards to the name Phyt. Phyt is the spirit that never dies. And Jonas is Puerto Rican. So if you take an animal off the island it will die. So that's how the name came about. And I wanted to credit our Phyt Cares vice president and longtime Phyt Gym client Hugh Dugan for suggesting to Jonas that name Phyt when he launched his own for-profit company, Phyt Gym. And then we launched our nonprofit arm Phyt Cares. And as I mentioned her Jonas wanted to launch in Puerto Rico given he is Puerto Rican and wanted to give back to his native people, given all the challenges that Puerto Ricans were facing. And we went down there a few months before the hurricanes hit the island. Then with the hurricanes a few months later that year, it really accelerated our mission on the island to really help communities in need.

 

Claire  04:39

And perhaps just for the timeline, you started in New York City, and then you also established in Puerto Rico. That's correct, right?

 

Elena  04:45

Yeah. So New York City was started in 2013. And initially, we worked with kids in the Bronx, which is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Then I could take a deeper dive into some of our other groups we've worked with since our inception. And then in Puerto Rico, it started in 2017.

 

Claire  05:08

So tell me a bit about the youth you're working with, right? You just mentioned that you started working with people from the Bronx.

 

Elena  05:14

So that was our first foray into setting up Phyt Cares pairs. We worked with high school students in the Bronx, initially, then we expanded to work with youth and families, parents legal guardians, throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Then we also formed a partnership with a Middle School in East Harlem called Isaac Newton middle school, to work with eighth graders to help them transition to high school and not only teach them about the importance of being active and healthy, but also leadership, respect, self respect, and also help them overcome the challenges they face as adolescents. And that partnership is still going very strong to this day. Around that same year, which was in 2015, we formed a partnership with Acacia, one of the most prominent Hispanic foundations for youth and we worked with their at risk youth. And we had a partnership with them for a few years. We also work with YAI, and that's an acronym for Young Adult Institute. And that's youth with special needs, and disabilities. And they're all young adults in their 30s and above, and we provide fitness programmes to their residents. And then we also work with Cool Kids, Passaic, New Jersey, and that Jewish community organisation for youth with special needs as well. And those are our existing New York partnerships where we provide weekly fitness programmes. And also as a woman, I'm really passionate about helping other women as you are. And every International Women's Day, through my network of women and financial services, we do a workout at Phyt Gym, and all the proceeds for that will go back to Phyt Cares and the women, we workout like conditioning, self defence strength. And that's a way I'm really thankful for all the women I know, through work, who support Phyt Cares, and we're really grateful.

 

Claire  07:39

Perhaps you could explain to me how you established all these partnerships?

 

Elena  07:44

So I think all our partnerships have been established through personal networking and referrals. So when Jonas and I set out to establish Phyt Cares, we reached out to a lot of prominent organisations throughout New York City to see if we could partner with their youth or communities, to incorporate our fitness to empower them to be active and healthy, and then teach them other attributes as well. And going that route, we didn't have as much luck, as we had through warm introductions to Acacia, or Isaac Newton middle school, or YAI or Cool Kids. And then what I forgot to mention that was during the COVID pandemic, was Chess in The Schools, and that's a group in New York City, they empower low income students through Chess education. So in the summer of 2021, when things were still primarily virtual or hybrid, we did a summer programme for those kids. So that way, you know, they could also get physical education. At the same time, they were sharpening their mental skills through Chess education. So yes, our partnerships have all been through warm introductions and referrals.

 

Claire  09:10

And now coming to your programme or your specific initiatives, right, so you mentioned fitness and physical activity, but you also previously spoke about leadership, respect and self respect. How do you make that happen? What do you teach the kids?

 

Elena  09:25

So one way we teach them is, sometimes during the programmes, the Phyt Cares trainers will appoint one of the kids to lead a warm up or lead an exercise. And then they'll say to one kid, "you lead the first minute of jumping jacks", and then they'll go to the next kid and say "You lead the next minute and you pick an exercise to warm up everyone". So that's one way we teach them leadership and then on the Puerto Rico front, Jonas, since he set up down there five years ago, has been instrumental not only through educating the communities in Puerto Rico through fitness, but also giving young entrepreneurs the opportunity to be leaders, helping support young entrepreneurs grow and expand their businesses, giving them a place to run their businesses out of Phyt Gym.

 

Claire  10:28

From what I hear, Phyt Gym will also collaborate and partner with others and just ensure that you support even other businesses, if it's not directly within your activities. Is that correct?

 

Elena  10:40

 Yeah, that's accurate. So there's a few other businesses like restaurants, body art, and stuff as well. So he's given them a platform for them to run and grow and expand their business, as well as a way to empower entrepreneurs, and also, giving trainers at Phyt Gym in Puerto Rico the opportunity to really expand as well and grow through personal training.

 

Claire  11:08

So now, let's speak about impact. How would you explain to someone what your impact has been in the past almost 10 years now?

 

Elena  11:15

So I guess our impact could be explained on a few different fronts. For example, through our partnership with Isaac Newton Middle School in East Harlem, we asked the assistant principal how the students are improving, whether it's  academic performance, or class participation, or just class attendance overall. So throughout the years, as a result of Phyt Cares, participants have improved in all those areas. And I wanted to mention that during the COVID pandemic, in 2020, when students were doing school at home, coming back to school, it was a harder transition than normal. So then, in 2021, when we revamped our in-person partnership with Isaac Newton, after about a year or two hiatus, with COVID, we noticed that the kids were not as well behaved as they were previously from being home a lot of the time. So through Phyt Cares. And the trainers, they were instrumental in turning them around. And then we empowered them by saying "you have so much opportunity to achieve great potential," and it's a programme they look forward to every week.

 

Claire  12:49

I'm just curious now, have there been any of these kids or these adolescents who at some point were so into the programme and really enjoyed their experience? Did some of them decide to become trainers or something like that?

 

Elena  13:02

Through our partnership with Acacia, which I mentioned is a foundation for at-risk youth, Jonas took one of the Acacia residents under his wing, and gave him a job to help out as an apprentice at Phyt Gym, and taught him to become a trainer. So he was with us for a little while training. So, Jonas was a mentor, and so much more to him, as well as teaching him how to manage money and teaching him about work and responsibilities and being a trainer. So Jonas really took someone from Acacia under his wing.

 

Claire  13:42

And then for you personally I'm curious to know you're speaking about the people you've been helping but this journey for you, how has it been so far? What have you learned about yourself? Or what new abilities and skills have you found yourself to be able to do through this journey with Phyt Cares?

 

Elena  14:00

So it's a great question, if you were to ask me if I was ever going to do this when I was little, and people ask you 'what you want to be when you grow up', this would have never crossed my mind. So to answer your question, Jonas, and I never had experience launching and forming a nonprofit before. We were very thankful we had good attorneys to guide us along the way and good mentors to help guide us and it's been very rewarding. When seeing these kids how happy they are through the programmes, and seeing the Phyt Cares trainers as mentors, I also wanted to mention Carlos Gonzalez who runs Phyt Gym in New York City. He's the one who does most of the Phyt Cares New York City programmes and to see how happy the kids and participants are with him is amazing. And other things I've learned, anyone, whether it's a nonprofit leader, or an entrepreneur, or a business owner, you get a lot of no's. And I think it pushes you and motivates you to keep going, and never give up. And now that we're almost 10 years in, there's no turning back!

 

Claire  14:03

I really wish that you continue for even more than 10 years, where you are, and perhaps even expand not only New York and Puerto Rico, this is a programme that's working, you know, why not even go across the country? Perhaps? Is that something that you've been thinking about?

 

Elena  15:41

Yes, it just depends on the resources we have, if we have a group that wants to give us support, or grant or a prominent donation, then there's definitely a way we could find a way to make that work.

 

Claire  15:56

So you just mentioned their grant and donation. So how has that part of running Phyt Cares been? Was that a challenge?

 

Elena  16:04

Well, I guess like every nonprofit, that's one of their main goals is to fundraise. Because the more funds that any organisation has, the more impact they can make. And I just wanted to mention that Phyt Cares does not have any full time employees. So all the donations that we get, go directly to the communities we serve. So donors know exactly where their donations are going to. And through fundraising Jonas, Carlos, and I have just leveraged our respective networks in Puerto Rico in New York City to get donations, we got one grant in Puerto Rico, and hopefully, we'll get a grant in New York City. But I would say all our donations have been through companies or individuals.

 

Claire  16:59

And perhaps to conclude the conversation, what would be your biggest learning? What would you share with our listeners? Let's say someone is thinking of starting something like that, a nonprofit, perhaps they have a great idea, what would you advise them? What's your biggest learning?

 

Elena  17:12

I would say, don't give up is one piece of advice, and ask for help. Because if you've never done this before, you definitely need people to help you along the way, whether it's attorneys to help you get your tax exempt papers done, or a business plan done, or budget done. And also, when things come to fruition, whether we get a donation, or something of that sort, and seeing how happy the participants are, those things are very rewarding.

 

Claire  17:53

Is there anything you'd like to add? Before I let you go, I have a good overview of Phyt Cares. And I think our listeners as well have a good idea of what you're doing? How can they support you perhaps, is there maybe something you could mention?

 

Elena  18:06

So we're in the stages of planning our annual November 2022 fundraiser. So if anyone wants more information on that and supporting our cause, they could reach out to me directly. My email is elana@phytgym.com. And I also created a fundraiser page called betterunite.com/phyt cares. And they could look at that and my email is on that as well. And as always, Jonas and I are always open to any ideas that anyone has, whether it's for a new programme, a new possible grant, or a new possible donor. We're always open.

 

Claire  19:02

Great. So I'll make sure that we have all these links in the show notes, your your email and the page for the fundraiser. And I hope that our listeners will support you as well. Thank you so much, Elana

 

Elena  19:12

And thank you Claire from Jonas as well. We both wanted to thank you for taking the time to hear more about our Phyt Cares journey.

 

Claire  19:31

You can learn more about Elena's organisation and Phyt Cares activities on their website at phytnyc.com/philanthropy. Phyt is spelled P H Y T. You will also find the link in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I appreciate you taking the time. That was episode 40, a Conversation with Elana Margulies Snyderman on empowering communities through fitness. Be sure to share this episode within your network and with your friends if you like it, we would love to read your feedback about our show on Apple Podcasts or get your rating on Spotify. You can also connect with us through our social handles. You will find all the links on our website at narratives-of-purpose.podcastpage.io. Until the next episode, take care of yourself, stay well and stay inspired.

 

This podcast was produced by Tom at rustic studios.