Sisterhood Fitness

It is a safe space for women to meet their fitness goals, offering citizenship, English, and GED classes and fun community events throughout the year. They host an annual walkathon open to everyone who believes in this important work.

Story

Sisterhood Fitness grew out of women in the community asking for a safe space to exercise, get out of the house, and build relationships. Our founder, Claire, taught English in Hamtramck over ten years ago. During her classes, she included a 10-minute exercise break. Her students loved exercising together and started asking if there was a place to exercise safely in Hamtramck. As Claire listened to the women in her classes, she heard their need for a safe place to exercise, but no one met that need. In 2016, Claire got together with a few of her friends and decided to open Sisterhood Fitness. Since the beginning of Sisterhood Fitness, Claire has been volunteering many hours a week, managing volunteers, and teaching classes. Sisterhood Fitness has moved locations around Hamtramck since opening. The desire for Sisterhood Fitness is to be a safe space for women to exercise and build friendships with their neighbors. Empowering women to strengthen their bodies, minds, and hearts is the mission of Sisterhood Fitness. The director and volunteers of Sisterhood Fitness are committed to creating a space where women feel safe and empowered to strengthen themselves. 

About

Our mission is to empower women to strengthen body, minds s, and hearts. We create an atmosphere that values community, trust, diversity, education, and participation. We offer exercise classes, accountability, educational courses, outings, and a place to build intercultural friendships. Currently, Sisterhood Fitness offers exercise classes throughout the week to members. These classes are run by volunteers and cover a variety of exercises for functional wellness and pleasure. Our schedule usually includes strength training, stretching and flexibility, weights, steps, HIIT, aerobic dance, and Zumba. Sisterhood Fitness wants to offer classes that encourage and challenge our members to take charge of their health. We work closely with members and volunteers to ensure that exercises are modified to fit individual needs—Sisterhood Fitness partners with other nonprofits and health and wellness professionals to offer a holistic approach to health. We have done stroke and high blood pressure awareness seminars. Our regular rotation involves partnerships with local food banks to encourage healthy cooking and eating habits. In the past, we have also offered English classes and tutoring and Citizenship classes. We hope to restart that in 2022. Community events focused on the arts, fitness, cuisine, and local travel bring women and girls together for social and emotional support. At the heart of Sisterhood Fitness, we want women to grow healthy in every aspect of their lives.

Volunteers

Sisterhood Fitness is composed of an all-female volunteer base. As we engaged with the immigrant community in Hamtramck, we realized that to build trust and create a safe space for women, we would need volunteers to listen. As we heard these voices, an all-female model for fitness was birthed. Volunteers from all backgrounds and cultures are encouraged to exercise alongside our members and teach or facilitate an event or activity. We are working toward volunteers having training or certification in specific teaching areas. We already have one volunteer certified in group fitness instruction by an accredited organization. While most of our programs focus on exercise, we encourage women who want to volunteer to talk with the director about other needs. We are interested in trying new things.

Founder

Claire Kirby- as mentioned in our history, Claire founded Sisterhood Fitness out of a felt community need. As Claire listened to her English classes, she followed her passion for women to open a fitness center. Claire is energetic, creative, and all-around fun. She keeps our members motivated, exercising alongside them and providing specialized workout routines that suit their needs.

Director

Katie Handy- She has always been an active person, but nine years ago, she joined a ladies' fitness center, and this experience showed her the power of group exercise. The care and encouragement given to each woman changed her mind about fitness and allowed her to see health and wellness as vital parts of a community. After moving to Hamtramck in 2017, Katie visited Sisterhood Fitness. The first time she stepped into the studio, she felt the encouragement of women, the positive relationships, and the promotion of women's health. She has been volunteering with Sisterhood Fitness since 2018, and it has felt more like home, as the ladies have become like family. Katie became the director at Sisterhood Fitness in Summer 2020 as Claire was looking to transition out of that role. There are great days ahead as we journey towards health and wholeness, and Katie is excited to partner with women in her community to see these dreams come to fruition.

Group Fitness Coordinator

Kathy Schneider- health and fitness has always been a passion and joy for Kathy. As a Registered Nurse, she knows the importance of being active and loves to encourage others in reaching their fitness goals. Group exercise classes are one way for our community at Sisterhood to get healthy TOGETHER. Kathy helps to coordinate volunteer instructors and fun, challenging, and diverse exercise classes. Come check out one of the many classes she teaches; I'm sure you will love it!

Walk-a-Thon

Sisterhood Fitness hosts an annual walk-a-thon to fundraise part of their yearly budget. This event allows people outside of our community to walk together for their health and raise funding for the health of others. This event has only been open to women in the past, but we are excited to expand and offer the walk-a-thon to anyone who would like to join. You can virtually walk wherever you are, get a group together and walk in your neighborhood, or if you are close to Hamtramck, join us to walk together for health! The walk-a-thon typically happens in October. 

Monthly community events

Each month, we meet on a Saturday and offer a free learning event to our community's women and girls. We do things like special fitness choreographed dancing, painting, cultural classes, and field trips as part of the regular rotation of Saturday events. We encourage women and girls age ten and up to join these events to learn a new activity, develop relationships, and create healthy habits for themselves and their families. We hope to host more art and painting events, special dance classes, community hikes, swimming, boating, and rock climbing. If you would like to partner with us or have an idea for a fun community event for women, please let us know!  

Community events

Active participation in healthy events is part of building relationships at Sisterhood Fitness. Through health fairs, 5k events, or cooking demonstrations, we encourage members and volunteers to be fit within our community and share our passion for health with others. 

Stories and Quotes from our members

"I come for exercise, health reasons, and to lose weight."

"I used to work out at home for like four years, and I got bored and unmotivated. I started coming to Sisterhood Fitness to get motivated. We're like family. We all get along." 

"I feel comfortable here. Exercising together with people makes me feel powerful and happy. There's no other women's gym, especially for women from Yemen, who maybe only speak Arabic and need privacy. You've helped the women here so much! I'm so grateful. If it closes, I'll be so sad. I'm so happy to come. I wish more people would come. I hope it's open for a long time, and we learn more things together." 

Mission and Values 

• Work to create a space that fulfills our mission of empowering women to strengthen their bodies, mind, and heart.

• Develop a supportive and loving community among members and volunteers through peer support programs and monthly outings.

• Foster an atmosphere of trust by making Sisterhood Fitness a safe place for women of many cultural and religious backgrounds. Listen to the needs of members and volunteers and facilitate conflict resolution as needed.

• Value the local community's diversity and seek to meet diverse needs by adjusting programs and offerings as needed.

• Facilitate education by identifying areas of need and instructors who can meet those needs through one-on-one mentoring and/or educational courses.

• Encourage participation by providing opportunities for members and volunteers to contribute and honoring their contributions.