Shape Your Life<\/a> has helped empower more than 1,200 women and trans survivors of violence through a free recreational boxing program at a gym in Toronto.<\/p>\nOn Friday, Nov. 25, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced it was funding the research of Shape Your Life co-founder and Brock University researcher Cathy van Ingen, along with Department of Kinesiology associate professor Kimberley Gammage more than $420,000 to evaluate the effectiveness of the Shape Your Life program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is significant evidence from participants of Shape Your Life that this program is valuable to them, this study will allow us to provide further evidence of its benefits, with a focus on the positive outcomes of Shape Your Life \u2013 including a greater sense of control and better feelings about the self,\u201d says Gammage.<\/p>\n
With the three-year Public Health Agency of Canada grant, van Ingen and Gammage will be able to measure the program\u2019s impact on 225 participants\u2019 self-esteem, resilience, PTSD, social supports and other areas of their lives.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of each 14-week program, around 25 participants will fill out detailed questionnaires measuring various aspects of their physical and mental health. They will fill out the same questionnaire halfway through the program, when the program ends, and again six months later.<\/p>\n
Shape Your Life is held at the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, known as the first women-led boxing club in Canada.<\/p>\n
Created by van Ingen, boxing coach Savoy Howe, and Opportunity for Advancement\u2019s Green in Toronto in 2007, the idea is to use physical movement as a way of empowering women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe use physical activity to create a safe environment where participants can focus on reconnecting and regaining\u00a0control of their bodies and on rebuilding their lives, feeling less anxious, less rage and in more control,\u201d says van Ingen, associate professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences\u2019 Department of Kinesiology.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrauma is held in people\u2019s bodies and healing from violence involves knowing and feeling that you are in charge of your own body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shape Your Life differs from conventional counseling programs in that the focus is on using physical activity \u2013 rather than only talking \u2013 to help women work through the trauma they experienced from violence.<\/p>\n
Included within the program are additional supports for the women, such as a food bank and transit tokens.<\/p>\n
Among the many amazing transformations van Ingen has witnessed since the program launched in 2007 is that of Jivraj, who is now Shape Your Life\u2019s program coordinator.<\/p>\n
In the decade from being a \u2018pilot participant\u2019 to program coordinator, Jivraj earned two university degrees: a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Social Work.<\/p>\n
She recalls how the physical motions of boxing and exercise led her to develop thoughts of strength and control during her step-by-step journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do remember this moment when I came out of the gym and I\u2019m walking and I realize, \u2018I\u2019m walking tall, I\u2019m walking in the middle of the sidewalk, I\u2019m not trying to make myself small or invisible or make it OK for people to walk around me,\u201d says Jivraj. \u201cThat is so powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t