In the city of Chicago, there is a 20-year life expectancy gap between communities of color and predominantly white communities. If you live in a neighborhood like Pilsen, statistically speaking, you’re likely to not live as long as someone who lives in Oak Park. Pilsen native Tanya Lozano has set out to combat this gap through her nonprofit, Youth Service Corps, and her fitness and dance studio, Healthy Hood.
Three years into Youth Health Service Corps, Lozano realized that putting the responsibility of prescribing a lifestyle plan for someone else onto students wasn’t effective or realistic. The “one lifestyle change” was the most difficult aspect for communities of color like hers: “We just naturally, through tradition, eat very greasy and salty foods, and we work two or three jobs to sustain our families, and there’s not a whole lot of time to exercise and if there is there’s really not a lot of resources in these communities as to how you can exercise,” she says. As a result, Healthy Hood was born.
