I have never once called myself a runner. 

I do Orange Theory religiously, and that community feels like home. But run clubs, pace groups, and all of that has always felt a little unwelcoming, especially as a slower runner. There’s also a very specific image of what a runner looks like, and I’ve never really matched it.

So when I first heard about Movement for All, I realized the story I was supposed to be telling was also, in a lot of ways, my own.

Launching this week, the Movement for All Initiative is a three-year partnership between On and the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC) that gives women across the country six months of fully funded coaching or fitness training at no cost. Participants can choose from nearly 50 vendors, including yoga studios, Pilates spaces, boxing gyms, running coaches, and virtual options for anyone who needs the flexibility. It’s designed for women who are starting movement for the first time, coming back after an injury or pregnancy, or after years of putting themselves last.

Kiera Smalls has been running RIDC since 2020, a year that forced the entire industry to reckon with itself. “It was when Ahmaud Arbery was killed on his run that leaders in the running industry came together and said, ‘What can we do to increase representation in running both the sport and the business?'” she tells ESSENCE. Five years later, the organization has become a national nonprofit with a mission that has expanded far beyond that initial moment. Today, its work spans research, industry access, sponsorship, and community programming aimed at making running feel less exclusive.

On was one of RIDC’s first investors and has stayed committed well beyond the initial check, funding research, running an industry scholarship program and showing up to the harder conversations along the way. Kaboli-Nejad described the cross-brand sessions RIDC facilitated over the years, where partner companies would come together and sit with some genuinely uncomfortable questions. “What stories are we telling? Who’s represented on our social channels, on our feeds? What content are we creating as brands?” she said. “I think even creating that space to have those conversations across brands was so, so important because often I think brands, you want to do the right thing, but then your tunnel vision [kicks in].”

The six-month timeline for Movement for All came from real data. Last year, RIDC ran a program called Freedom to Run Back Outside, trying to bring more BIPOC people into trail running. They opened applications for 14 spots and got 275 in 10 days. Feedback from that group helped shape what this program ultimately became. Three months is enough to get someone in the door, but six months is long enough for something to actually stick.

Kaboli-Nejad is in the middle of her own return to movement after having a baby. “My body’s very different,” she said. For women who may not even end up applying, she hopes the program signals that support exists and that there are communities willing to meet them where they are. She’s not measuring success by race finishes or before-and-after moments. For her, getting someone to take one first step is enough. “Let me just go to this initial class, let me just kick it off.” Everything else, she believes, tends to follow from there.

Smalls knows that first step is often the hardest part, and not always for the reasons people expect. She read me a note from a woman who had gone through one of RIDC’s earlier scholarship programs. The woman had attended a major industry trade show alone, and spent much of it quietly wondering if she even had a right to be in the room.  “I questioned whether I was supposed to be there or if I was important enough to be there. Having the spirit of RIDC there to back me up to remind me that I am allowed to take up space, that this industry is better with me in it and that I do deserve to be here was invaluable to me.”

Removing the financial barrier is one piece of it, but Smalls is equally focused on the part that money alone can’t fix. That feeling, built over years of marketing and imagery, that certain sports were designed for a specific kind of person. RIDC pushes the industry to look honestly at what it’s putting out into the world, and goes directly to women to say that image was never the full picture. “I know when people are like, ‘I’m not a runner,'” Smalls said. “But then I’m like, ‘But you ran.'”

“You can begin again at any time and this time you don’t have to do it alone.” For anyone who has ever talked themselves out of it before they even started, I think this one might be for us.

Applications are open now at runningdiversity.com.

The post If You’ve Ever Said “I’m Not A Runner,” ‘Movement For All’ Was Built With You In Mind appeared first on Essence.