By Jillian Berman, USA TODAY - 7/22/09
Solomon says he originally decided to start running with her to relieve stress and get a good workout, but then "one thing led to another, and this running was a little more than a workout."
Two years later, Solomon graduated from the Metro Career Center in Philadelphia in computer technology and competed in a marathon, coming up just a few miles short of finishing. He credits much of his success to Mahlum's Back on My Feet program.
"She was telling us about the strength we had in ourselves, and I may have never tapped into it if it wasn't for her," he says. "I'm one of the guys that dropped out of high school, never graduated anything, so (graduating from Metro Career Center) was cool."
Back on My Feet uses running as a vehicle to help homeless people become self-sufficient, says program director Wylie Belasik. The program creates teams from residents at shelters in the Philadelphia and Baltimore areas. The teams, which also include non-resident volunteers, run together three to four mornings a week to reach goals ranging from finishing a 3-mile run to a half or full marathon.
We bring people together in a team environment to try to push themselves emotionally and physically to start to trust people more," Belasik says. "By someone accomplishing a 5-mile run, it starts the ball rolling to say, 'Well maybe I could go back to school as well, and I thought that was crazy before, just like I thought running 5 miles was crazy.' "
Jeremy Jordan, an assistant professor of sport and recreation management at Temple University in Philadelphia, is studying Back on My Feet to determine the effect of running on self-esteem and commitment to a community. Jordan is taking monthly assessments of many of the teams, and he says he hopes to have enough data by the end of the 18-month study to measure changes in the participants.
Though the study is in its early stages, Jordan says, he already has seen changes: "People feel better about themselves, and they feel better about the future outlook." He adds that committing to being part of a team is what sparks much of the change in participants.
"We've taken the position that if you just handed these folks a running program for 30 days you wouldn't have seen the same outcome," he says.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, says recreational programs for the homeless are especially important during tough economic times. His group is even sponsoring a national street soccer tournament this month.
"Three hot meals and a cot is fine, but people need more than that to make it through the day," he says.
Although most shelters do not have enough resources to provide recreational programming, Stoops says, participating in sports can provide a variety of benefits to the homeless.
"A running team breaks the stereotype that homeless folks are not able-bodied," he says. "It changes perceptions, and our society has a lot of negative stereotypes about the homeless population."
Though any sport can offer a recreational outlet, Belasik says running is especially conducive to a program like Back on My Feet.
"It's a very egalitarian sport in the sense that running rewards effort," he says. "It gives people the strength to connect that with the recovery process. There's no instant gratification."