WELCOME TO GROW CYCLING FOUNDATION 12

WE PROMOTE EDUCATION, ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT INCREASE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN CYCLING.

The brainchild of Eliot Jackson and Katie Holden, Grow Cycling Foundation serves to promote education, access and opportunities that advance diversity and inclusion in cycling.

Grow Cycling Foundation was created in light of the 2020 George Floyd protests and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. In recognition that the cycling world is not immune to a culture of exclusivity and racism, the founders felt a need to help focus the call to action within their own community.

Grow Cycling Foundation was established to create new avenues for inclusive community building and career development in the cycling industry as well as to empower existing programs working to tear down the barriers to entry in cycling for marginalized communities. With ears on the ground in these communities, Grow Cycling Foundation serves to provide the education, access, and opportunities that directly address the barriers they face. To sustainably and inclusively grow the industry, authentic foundations of diversity must be built from within.

Investing in areas that create sustainable paths for cycling as a lifelong passion, Grow Cycling Foundation leverages four overlapping pillars: Education, Opportunity, Community & Access, to create solutions that provide entry points at various steps of a cyclist's journey.

With a dynamic, five-year plan in place, the first initiative of Grow Cycling Foundation is to build a pumptrack in Los Angeles, CA. Grow aims to inspire career paths and involve the local community by using this space for world-class events, community building and programs that teach various cycling industry skills.

Founding Partners: Grow Cycling Foundation has some of the best brands in the world as Founding Partners. These brands are committed to changing the status quo, doing the hard work, and are in it for the long haul. They understand that this is not an easy problem to solve, but are with us every step of the way as we build an inclusive future for cycling.

-Yeti Cycles
-Santa Cruz Bicycles
-FOX
-Be Good Foundation
-Pinkbike
-Red Bull

@ELIOTJACKSON
@KATIEHOLDEN


Credit: Grow Cycling Foundation
Related:
Eliot Jackson
Katie Holden
12 comments

View replies to: WELCOME TO GROW CYCLING FOUNDATION

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artista1
4 years ago
Diversity is always cool.....but the true is
Some things are just cultural and social-cultural of course.
Its a complex discussion.
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Roots_rider
4 years ago
Exactly. Culture and location are huge aspects. Check out @RRDblock on insta. He has over 360k followers on ig, significantly more than most pro mtb riders. His #harlam style of riding is hugely more popular among youth POC than MTB is. Skate and BMX always have been as well, which makes sense in a financial and location aspect. I wish I could find the kid from the Bronx that went viral all on IG a couple years ago, but he was shredding wheelies and cutties though traffic all over New York. And there is a legacy brand that has done a fantastic job of supporting this, who no offense, will get thousands more POC onto bikes than Yeti ever will. That brand is SE Bikes. I fully support what Eliot is doing here, and would love to see this sport grow to reach other people. But at what point are we pushing a sport that might just be more popular in white culture, onto black culture, and people who may not actually be that interested in it?
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TEAMROBOT
4 years ago
All of your points make sense, but I don’t think Eliot’s goal is widespread adoption by POC or equal representation. If I’m hearing him right, he’s just scratching his head that zero other kids like him or his brother Andrew had his opportunities or felt welcome. I think his goals are pretty modest and realistic- make the sport more welcoming and more inclusive.
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Roots_rider
4 years ago
To keep things shortish, as there’s way too many levels of this, to have in a conversation this way. My concern becomes brands, or other people in general, seeing this as an opportunity for solicitation and profit when it’s not wanted. I’d never doubt Eliot’s intent here, and I support a larger diversity in MTB. More culture, means more styles, and leads to more progression. Zeb Powell’s take on snowboarding for instance. We’ve not had a mtb version of Bubba Stewart yet either, so we haven’t seen that same level of attentiveness or interest. I hope that one day MTB gets to find someone, or many, who can inspire others like Bubba did. And I hope they come from Eliot and his program. The end of the day I want the people benefitting from this to be the correct ones, and not a company selling more $10k bikes because some white guy with a bmw feels good buying it. Unless it’s a $10k Grow Foundation bike and all profit goes back into the foundation.
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Lankycrank
4 years ago
Awesome! Diversity in cycling is a small aspect of a massive, complicated, and global issue. There's no easy solutions, but initiatives like this will hopefully help bring a change for the better. Definitely contributing :-)
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jeff.brines
4 years ago
Turman you should have left that comment here. I'll admit I've heard a lot of "behind closed door" conversations where people are sick of seeing certain forms of activism in sports. I feel its important to let people share a sentiment such as the prior poster's. Here is why...

Ultimately, it'll end up a complete lambasting for the poster. There will be posts that highlight differentiating factors between what Eliot is doing and say, Yeti dropping the word "tribe" from their marketing. Many perceive these to be in the same vein. One is the real deal. The other is virtue signaling. Having a discussion around this, as crass and uncomfortable as it may seem, is a good idea IMO. It lets people who have thoughts like this posters, and are too scared to share them, to see how they might be seeing all of this through the wrong lens.

What Eliot is doing is rad for so many reasons.

Just my $0.02.

EDIT: Nevermind. I just saw his second post. I clearly had this one wrong.
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bturman
4 years ago
The member in question is welcome to share his views. We will not tolerate streams of profanity in our comment sections, however, regardless of the topic.
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Mwood
4 years ago
Good to see some positive in today's world. I signed up for a recurring contribution of $20.
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jeff.brines
4 years ago
"We aren’t taking salaries or any wages to do this. Currently, everyone working at Grow Cycling Foundation is a volunteer. Aside from platform hosting fees and administrative costs, 100% of your donations go directly to Grow Cycling initiatives and are tax-deductible."

I just want to put this here because its important. Too many non profits (cough protect our winters cough) turn into a self serving non profit that aim to support the people that run them as much as (more than) the cause they aim to have an effect on.

Beyond this, what I think is rad about Eliot's non-profit is its specific aim. I hope he keeps this aim laser sharp while continually acknowledging one of the primary drivers to the outdoor sporting world's "exclusionary" issue has more to do with wealth inequality than anything else.

Oh, and I feel I speak for everyone when I say "more videos with Elliot doing whips".
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