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Organizations We Admire
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Veterans Helping Communities Get Active With Troops For Fitness

By
Mackenzie Meaney
//
6.23.2022

Launched in 2013 in the City of Atlanta through the National Recreation and Park Association, Troops for Fitness helps to find jobs for veterans as fitness instructors in their communities.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure serving as the program manager for the City of Atlanta's Department of Parks and Recreation Troops for Fitness Program,” said Talecia Parks, National Recreation and Park Association, on its website. “It afforded me the opportunity to have a positive impact on Veterans who have served our country. I enjoyed developing the program to ensure that our United States Veterans had an opportunity to use their skills to not only impact the local community, but to also supplement their income. For some Veterans, the program afforded them the opportunity to finish school. I was more than thrilled to offer jobs to United States Veterans.”

Nearly 200,000 troops leave active duty a year and many of them struggle to find jobs. Through Troops for fitness, using a unique knowledge of the human body and attention to detail while working out when still in the military, these veterans help to make their communities a lot more active and help to build good fitness habits through the classes they teach.

Troops for Fitness helps on average of 600 participants each month and, so far, has been active in 12 different cities across the United States, with veterans leading the charge for this new wave of fitness. The classes are affordable, some are even free, and have helped communities grow, helped them to get to know who the veterans are in their area, and learn something new about working out. Some of the classes offered are strength conditioning, dancercise, yoga, and boot camp.

To find out more about Troops for Fitness and the work they do in their cities, you can check out the National Recreation and Park Association website.

Photo credits: Collections