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By James W. Robinson

Staff Writer

A Hampton Roads nonprofit has been on the move to provide new healthy initiatives to the community, with the City of Suffolk being its latest venture.

The T2 Fitness Foundation has been providing healthy and nutritional measures to support high risk individuals living in under-resourced communities. Along with Suffolk, the nonprofit has brought initiatives to the City of Franklin, Isle of Wight County, the City of Norfolk and Gates County, NC. During a Thursday, Oct. 31 interview, T2 Fitness Foundation Executive Director Tasha Turnbull had a chance to discuss the nonprofit. Starting in 2018, Turnbull says their mission is to help community members discover unique and practical ways to lead a healthier lifestyle thanks to their comprehensive program – the T2 Fresh Start Initiative program.

“…It is a free 12-week program we created for individuals who have chronic medical diseases such as diabetes or hypertension, and we have hypertension based cohorts and we have diabetes based cohorts,” Turnbull said. “…it’s a program that includes fitness training, life coaching, cooking classes and food based group mental health therapy and health monitoring to really help them improve their whole health, which will in turn help to minimize the risks associated with the medical condition that they have.”

Turnbull says it’s important for people to understand how to lead a healthier lifestyle, not just learn about it. She also explains that through the 12-week program, the nonprofit helps participants discover tools they already have as well as tools easily accessible to them to begin leading healthy lifestyles during the program, and afterward. On bringing the program to Suffolk, Turnbull says the city has been one of their “heaviest attended cohorts.”

“I’m not sure what’s going on in the water itself, but they’re like, ‘We do not play about the T2 Fresh Start Initiative!’ They are loving it,” she said. “And so with the program, we have two programs that take place actually in Suffolk. But with the T2 Fresh Start Initiative, the fitness classes take place in East Suffolk Recreation Center and the Suffolk Parks and Recreation has been a very good partner and supporter of the T2 Fresh Start Initiative. So our 12-week programs take place there – the fitness portion of it – and then the virtual life coaching, cooking classes and group therapy that takes place virtually.”

To date, the T2 Fresh Start Initiative has held five 12-week cohorts in Suffolk and has served over 125 women in the city. While Turnbull says their current program is booked and will be wrapping up at the end of this month, two more will be brought over to Suffolk next year to help “keep the party going as much as possible.” Turnbull talked about the turnout here in the city.

“And what a big turnout means is we usually get about 30 people to go through the program,” she said.

Turnbull encourages those interested in the program to connect with T2 Fitness Foundation via their website and social media. Due to the successful turnout, Turnbull says the nonprofit opened a new walking group this past summer which is open to residents on Tuesdays.

“So the school system has been gracious enough to allow us to move our walks into the Hillpoint Elementary School,” she said. “and the walks are open to everyone in the public because we want people to understand that movement is free, and movement and walking can be powerful, and it’s important to keep our heart rate going year round, because we have our legs year round, you know what I mean? So we want to help people maintain good cardiovascular health, and to improve their social health. So getting out and connecting with other people in your community and meeting new people and doing something positive for yourself at the same time.”

Turnbull talked about collaborating with Suffolk to help bring healthy initiatives to the community, noting that she’s “excited” the city has attached to their organization mission of helping improve the health of high risk individuals.

“And me speaking as someone who in the past had a number of difficulties with my health, I really looked to working out strength training and finding ways to be healthy daily as a tool to help me to maintain my lifestyle,” Turnbull said. “And so that’s what we’re trying to do for the people in the program and with the walking group. Like, don’t let everything go. Find those low-hanging fruit, because that can save you, because we all know it’s very hard to start over, you know, once you stop. So we want to provide something that people can do.”

Thanking Suffolk Parks and Recreation, Obici Health Foundation and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, Turnbull says the nonprofit has seen much support.

Support has also been seen from Dominion Energy as the electric distribution company recently awarded T2 Fitness Foundation a $2,500 grant from its Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. Cherise Newsome, spokesperson for Dominion Energy, talked about collaborating with the nonprofit in its mission to address health issues in Suffolk and Hampton Roads.

“The nonprofit foundation helps participants improve their health with education that equips them with knowledge for long-term healthy living,” Newsome said. “We are proud to support their work to help make an even greater impact in people’s lives and in the community.”

Turnbull says they were “grateful” for the grant as it helped with grocery purchases for their cooking classes to educate participants how to make healthy and flavorful foods in their homes. She expressed the importance of the continued support they receive.

“…And so it means the world to us, because we’re not just about, you know, eat right and exercise. We’re really about improving someone’s wellness, and that’s exactly what this program does, that we don’t take people’s weight. We’re not doing measurements. We’re really about people trying to find a unique and practical process that can help them move from A to B given all the challenges that people have going on in their lives,” Turnbull said.

For more information about T2 Fitness Foundation and the T2 Fresh Start Initiative, go to myt2fitness.com, facebook.com or email t2fitfoundation@gmail.com.