Health and Wellness

The Blue Hill Corridor has been found to have some of the worst health statistics in Boston, including some of the highest rates of obesity and chronic disease throughout the state. To champion wellness and combat disease, Sportsmen’s partnered with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2012 to create the Center for Community Wellness at Sportsmen’s (CCW). During the pandemic, the CCW grew into a health-and-wellness hub, providing resources, education, and vaccination clinics to hundreds of hesitant community residents. Social emotional learning and health and wellness are core elements of The Learning Center (TLC) programs at Sportsmen’s, and we utilize a proprietary curriculum that aligns with the Boston Public Schools Achieve Connect Framework (the essential skills youth need to succeed in school, careers and beyond). Our after-school program and summer camp offer weekly nutrition and cooking classes in our portable teaching kitchen. Sportsmen’s has also developed a strong partnership with Children’s Services of Roxbury, a leading family service provider, to help train for our staff and direct referral services for children and families in need. In the next year, we are excited to add a full-time, in-house social worker to provide even more support for our children, families, and team members.

Investing in the Health & Wellness pillar of our capital campaign will allow Sportsmen’s to fund our critical Health and Wellness Center Expansion.

One of the largest pillars of our expansion is the Health and Wellness Center, which will create 3,500 new square feet of space for health, fitness and wellness programming to complement and enhance programming initiated by The Brigham and Women’s Center for Community Wellness (CCW), which advances health and health equity along the Blue Hill Corridor.

The addition will include a new Fitness Center – free and accessible for residents of the Blue Hill Corridor – and a state-of-the-art permanent Teaching Kitchen for Cooking & Culture, the CCW’s weekly afterschool program empowering students to share culturally important foods, while making healthier versions of familiar recipes.

Sportsmen’s is a proud partner of national nonprofits including the American Heart Association and the Lupus Foundation of America. The CCW also partners with local medical residents, clinicians, and health providers to offer HealthEChats (health information forums), annual Health Fairs, CPR training, vaccinations and healthy farm shares to the greater Boston community. Through the work of its Community Engagement Coordinator and Ambassador Program, the CCW strives to ensure its work addresses the most important health and wellness issues for our neighbors and constituents.

Health and Wellness is one of six pillars of Phase II of our Capital Campaign. Learn more about the others here.