Central Rock Gym
Central Rock Gym exists to provide our members and guests with access to world class indoor rock climbing and fitness facilities. In addition to climbing, our gyms help build strong communities through their youth programs, member events, meetups, competitions, and fundraising events. We strive to create an experience and atmosphere within our gyms that is welcoming and accessible to all climbers, regardless of experience or background.
Joe fell in love with Rock Climbing while he was studying in college. He quickly realized that his love for problem solving and engineering felt very natural in the rock climbing world. Each route had a solution that could unlock the puzzle. After a few years of working as an engineer, he decided to partner with his brother and open his first climbing gym in Worcester, MA.
Central Rock Gym has invested in several JEDI initiatives. We have worked closely with Waypoint adventure to provide free space, fundraising, and corporate sponsorships for their adaptive climbers. They are based in the Boston area, so we are able to accommodate them at several gyms. Starting in fall of 2020, we began a program with local community centers around our chain to offer free programming and instruction to teens and youth from diverse backgrounds. Since the program has started, 5 of our gyms have already begun this work. Now that Covid restrictions are easing, we have commitments from 8 community organizations to start free programming for youth at CRG locations this fall. Our goal is to provide 100 youth/teen climbers per week with free access to climbing this fall, and we are very close to this goal. CRG invests by paying all its staff during these weekly free programming events at each gym. This is not a volunteer program for our staff. Since the program has started, some of the youth from our community partners have already moved into our competitive climbing programs where they receive full scholarships to climb, train, compete, and receive gear. This coming fall, we anticipate many more of these stories will emerge as more kids from diverse backgrounds get to experience our sport on a regular basis. The feedback from the community center leadership has been resounding: their teen/youth LOVE climbing!
We have created a diversity fund with five partners: Brown Girls Climb, Melanin Base Camp, Diversify Outdoors, Waypoint Adventure, and Climbing for Change. Each month our members can contribute to this fund, and Central Rock Gym will match all donations. We are currently raising almost $2,000/month for the fund, and have a goal of $5,000/month by years end. The funds go directly to the organizations.
Our gyms holds various meetups for underrepresented groups. Depending on the gym, we have adaptive climbing meetups, women's climbing meetups, LGBTQ+ meetups, and Brown Girls Climb meetups.
Central Rock Gym has created a sliding scale membership to provide greater access to low income climbers. While our normal membership rate is anywhere from $79 - $125 per month, we have created two price points at $39 and $49/month for climbers who cannot afford our normal prices. We are working with Brown Girls Climb (BGC) to provide discounted memberships to their members, and we are partnering with Climbing for Change to create a scholarship for BGC Members who are interested in outdoor climbing initiatives/certifications.
CRG is also investing in BIPOC pro-athletes by partnering with them to provide clinics to our members and BGC members this fall. Dr. Favia Dubyk and Sabrina Chapman have both committed to multi-day trips to the Boston and/or NYC area.
We have partnered with two different JEDI consultants. The first provides our company with JEDI training. All of our staff receive bias training as part of their on-boarding process, or ongoing training. Staff that coach or work with youth take an additional two part training on how to interact with children in an equitable fashion, and ensure that all young climbers feel welcomed and accepted regardless of background during our programs. Our managers are currently undergoing an inclusive hiring training to ensure that we have strategies in place for a transparent and equitable process, as well as ways to move our staff towards a move diverse mix for the future. Our second consultant is a strategy consultant who has helped CRG to form the investments and initiatives that you see in this outline, and planning for the future.
Three of our climbing gyms now have large solar arrays on their roofs. This offsets the carbon footprint created by our electricity needs at those facilities. We are continuing to work with state and local governments to add more solar arrays to our facilities with the long term goal of getting 100% of our energy from the sun!
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