Amplify Memphis Day Eight and Nine: Wellness and Safety for the Under-Resourced

Today’s student bloggers include Aidan Lovelace and Aaron Shanaman (’20)

This morning, we went to the Church Health Center where they explained the various ways that they help those in the community who don’t have health insurance or critical wellness options. The Church Health Center provides a holistic approach to wellness for clients that focuses on bodies and spirits and they are so passionate about their work with the community. They are able to do their work based on donations from individuals as well as foundations. They also help provide healthy food options with a weekly farmer’s market for those in neighborhoods without grocery stores close by. They hold teaching classes where they teach people to not only cook healthier but to cook within their current budget as well. Many people are surprised when they can eat many dishes that they normally do but in a more healthy way. They also provide people from any socioeconomic group access to a gym and workout classes for fitness training at a low cost. In addition, they showed us their therapeutic pool where they teach people with issues such as arthritis to get fit without as much pain through activities such as water aerobics.

After our lunch, we visited Memphis Athletic Ministries (MAM). MAM’s mission is to provide a safe and place for children, specifically from under-resourced neighborhoods, to channel their energies towards sports, to build relationships, and provide Christian mentoring. MAM operates summer camps for children and even opened their doors to children in Memphis who lost power after the recent storms. MAM welcomes children and teens up to the age of 18. Furthermore, MAM operates a Friday-night basketball league that has been shown to reduce violent crime in the city when the games are occurring. First, we were given an overview of the organization and its mission. Next, we toured MAM’s facility and got to play games like basketball and volleyball with some of the children in the gym. MAM has a main central location that came from a donation from the MemphisGrizzlies and had planned to build more facilities like it, but it turned out that bringing their programming into existing church and community center gyms around Memphis proved to be more cost effective. Overall, Memphis Athletic Ministries does terrific work for the city of Memphis and impacts thousands of children every year.