Bench Mark Program was founded in 2014 to transform the way we serve our community’s most vulnerable, yet promising population: underserved youth. At that time, many young adults simply were not responding to traditional therapy, prevention programs, or even probation. To maximize their potential, we knew we needed to earn their trust through a common bond. Enter weightlifting. We started offering free personal training services to youth identified as “at-risk” by local high schools and community organizations. It wasn’t long before we learned that the gym was more than a place for physical exercise. It was a safe, positive space to teach hard work, goal setting, and grit. And because we established a strong foundation through weightlifting first, our students responded positively to our mentorship. Word spread quickly, and the Bench Mark Program family grew. From 4 to 30 to 150. The gym became their home away from home, a place where they found consistent, enduring support from mentors who treated them like adults. As the numbers of students grew, so too did our breadth of services. And student leadership development--a path for students to eventually become mentors themselves--became the overarching goal.  Fast forward all these years, and while the gym, the team, and the scope of impact have all expanded, the core of the organization remains the same: build our underserved youth into community leaders.

Bench Mark’s Student Leadership Program is the key to the organization’s long term success. Without support from GTGH, we wouldn’t have the critical funding that we need to provide stipends to our student leaders as they work alongside staff to operate our programs on a daily basis. Come visit Bench Mark and you’ll see young leaders working as peer mentors,  building that critical “first job experience.” The support that we raised through GTGH does more than just support student leader stipends, it is a vote of confidence in our young people, a message that reads loud and clear: “we believe in you, and we believe that you have leadership potential!”