The average cost to help a member change their lives through the Back on My Feet program is $1,800. Currently, entering the final week of the Almond Breeze almond milk’s Taste Test Challenge, Back on My Feet has 38% of the votes ($9,716) in the contest where online voters decide how to divide $25,000.

So that means that were the contest to end now, FIVE members could be well on the way to getting back on their feet. Your votes directly contribute to the changing of lives!

Directly support Back on My Feet by casting your online vote: CLICK HERE

Users can vote multiple times up until the deadline of Aug. 22–so please vote often!

Just look in the right hand corner of your browser, select Back on My Feet and click submit! It only takes seconds and every vote counts.

To learn more about Almond Breeze, an alternative to soy milk, visit almondbreeze.com.

Blair House non-residential member, Anastasia Christman, created a video with the help of her fellow Back on My feet members, in order to “try to drive more participation among non-res members.”

Watch the video below or click here for You Tube: Read more…

Below are the Back on My Feet statistics effective July 28, 2010, broken up by city.

Philadelphia (Launched July 2007): 101 members

• Members who have run a race: 196
• Current percentage of members in Next Steps: 70%
• Members who have obtained employment: 84
• Members who have obtained housing:  45
• Members who have enrolled in job-training/re-education:  55

Baltimore (Launched March 2009): 41 members

• Members who have run a race: 97
• Current percentage of members in Next Steps: 90%
• Members who have obtained employment: 47
• Members who have obtained housing: 14
• Members who have enrolled in job-training/re-education: 42

Washington DC (Launched March 2010): 55 members

• Members who have run a race:  49
• Current percentage of members in Next Steps: 85%
• Members who have obtained employment:  8
• Members who have obtained housing: 5
• Members who have enrolled in job-training/re-education: 12

Boston (Launched May 2010):  22 members

• Members who have run a race: 30
• Current percentage of members in Next Steps: 55%
• Members who have obtained employment:  2
• Members who have obtained housing: 2
• Members who have enrolled in job-training/re-education: 6

Charm City Run, a running store, has pledged to donate 15 pairs of sneakers to Back on My Feet members. Beforehand, Back on My Feet Baltimore residential and non-residential members will participate in a 14-16 mile training run with Charm City Run’s half marathon and marathon groups.

It’s all part of a grand re-opening celebration for one of the franchise’s four retail stores.

The runs start at 7:00 a.m, will be held on Aug. 14 and anyone is welcome to join.

The meeting place will be Charm City Run, 2045 York Road Timonium, MD.

Download a full PDF here or view it on the website here.

They will also be offering donation “packages” that will cost $40 each and put a pair of
sneakers on an additional Back on My Feet Baltimore chapter members’ feet. A thank you gift
will be given in return for supporting the organization. This campaign kicks off Saturday, Aug. 14 and will
remain live indefinitely.

As many as 15 new Baltimore chapter members will be fitted for sneakers donated by Charm City Run at 9 a.m.

Charm City Run is working closely with Back on My Feet to provide a sustainable model for procuring gear for organization members so that they have the proper attire and footwear whenever they pound the pavement.

Life Fitness PR Rep Stephanie Weiss and VP of Marketing for Life Fitness Mark McCleary present Back on My Feet Founder Anne Mahlum with a donation.

Life Fitness has extended a helping hand in nurturing Back on My Feet’s newest planned chapter in Chicago.

Life Fitness is the global leader in providing fitness equipment. The company manufactures and sells strength and cardiovascular equipment under the brand names Life Fitness and Hammer Strength and distributes its equipment in more than 120 countries.

Having already presented Anne Mahlum with a $7,500 check, Life Fitness has also promised to help ensure the success of the chapter by encouraging it’s employees to volunteer as running mentors when the Chicago chapter opens later this year.

Back on My Feet is very appreciative of Life Fitness’s contribution and hopes to see this fruitful relationship continue. View the press release here.

Despite daytime temperatures in the 90s, two ultra marathon course records fell at the Third Annual Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24 Race Event, which also proved to be the largest yet.

More than 2,000 people converged on Lloyd Hall near Philadelphia’s picturesque Boathouse Row for the 24-hour event over the weekend. Roughly 1,400 of them were runners prepared to take on the 8.4 mile Schuylkill River loop in one of several races.  The event raised $250,000 for Back on My Feet, the running-based program to combat homelessness.

Serge Arbona, 45, retained the Lone Ranger crown, besting 250 other ultra marathon participants to win his third 24-hour distance title, breaking his own course record by running 146.75 miles.

“I pushed myself harder this year,” said Arbona, of Parkville, MD. “I hope to be back and do the same next year.”

Read more…

Back on My Feet has a lot of stories.

So, too, does Anne Mahlum, our founder and president.

As another way to help fund and promote our mission, Anne has spoken across the country  from the National Press Club in D.C. to universities, conferences and events. That being said, we’re happy to announce that Back on My Feet has developed a partnership with the Creative Arts Agency in hopes create more opportunities to share our organization and its many stories.

That organization will helping to find more opportunities to let Anne tell her story and our own.

Read more…

Back on My Feet Philadelphia is looking for volunteers for what will be the organization’s only team at a women-only facility.

The team, launching Monday, Aug. 9th, 2010, will be at the Shelia Dennis House, which houses 105 single females who are experiencing homelessness. Volunteers do not have to be female.

Many of the six inaugural female members at the facility volunteered at the Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24 earlier this month for their first taste of Back on My Feet–and loved it.

The facility is located at 2601 North Broad Street at Huntingdon Street, below Lehigh Avenue and accessible by the North Philadelphia stop on the Broad Street Line and Regional Rail.

This will be the Philadelphia chapter’s ninth team and the organization’s twenty third. Back on My Feet already has some female members, but this will be organization’s only team at a women-only facility. The D.C. chapter will also likely launch a women’s team later this year.

Please contact Owen Camuso owen@backonmyfeet.org if you are interested in being a volunteer for Shelia Dennis and supporting Back on My Feet’s only women’s team.

During the Third Annual Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24, six Baltimore runners had one brilliant idea: to eat a Philly cheesesteak from a famous shop after each loop they ran.

These six brave souls are Peter Jackson, coach for Back on My Feet Baltimore team MCVET, Jon Lange, a Baltimore Station team non-residential member, Patrick Sullivan, a team American Rescue Workers non-res, Mike DiJulia,  team leader for THUMB, Patrick Range, ARW team leader, and Craig Lindemann, a BSTAT non-res.

Read their story, as told by Patrick Range, below:

Read more…

Representatives from one of the largest media corporations in Japan, Nikkei, ran with Washington team DC Clean and Sober Streets last month and then wrote about the organization.
Read more…