Photo of Chris (left) and his brother Bernard (right) in 2016, the first day Chris got home from prison. They were born one year apart and called each other twins. (Photo: Maleka Fruean)

On a red wall inside a gym at 4242 Greene Street, you’ll find a motivational saying, “I Will Be Better,” a red hoodie hung up with white lettering that says “LONG LIVE NARD,” and a bright mirror reflecting all the workouts and training that goes on. 

And in the middle of that red wall is a photo of two men, the sun shining in their faces. They look alike. They stare into the camera, similar looks on their faces, wearing similar black baseball caps. 

It’s a photo of the first day Chris Washington was released from jail in 2016, and sitting next to him is his brother, Bernard. They were both born in October, one year apart, and called each other twins. 

Just one year later, in 2017,  Bernard would be shot and killed in the area. And through that pain and loss, Chris has created a business, a brand, and a mission to build leaders and collaborate on preventing gun violence from happening anywhere in the city. 

It’s how he started N.A.R.D. Fitness, named after his late brother’s nickname, an organization focused on “providing fitness services and resources to high-risk individuals, with an emphasis on mental health support and community engagement”.

How it all began

Washington was in prison for five years, during which he began working out, losing weight, and developing a training regimen for himself. It would lead him to his work as a personal fitness trainer when he got out of prison. But before all of that, he started with his family.

His first client was actually his brother. He started training him from within the prison. 

He started sending his brother photos from inside prison, alongside workout regimens, and talking to him about a fit mindset. He wanted his brother to accompany him on the journey. By the time Washington got out, they had both lost a lot of weight and were motivated to stay fit, physically and mentally. 

Washington knew when he got out, he wanted to do a lot — for himself, his family, and his community.

He immediately signed up for reentry education programs and began to find work as a personal trainer in gyms. But then, his brother passed away a year later. 

Bernard was funny… and so much more.

When asked about his favorite things about his brother, Chris can’t just name one. He said he and his brother would be together almost every day. 

“I ain’t gonna lie. We was comical. Every day was funny,” he said.

“We was the light. So anytime we went somewhere… we  would just try to outmatch each other, positively try to be the life of everything.”

Washington says, in full transparency, that his brother was the neighborhood weed dealer. But that wasn’t all he was, he noted. He was also a neighborhood leader, Washington said.

Anything the hood needed, he gave back.

That included helping people pay rent, buying school clothes for kids, addressing playground needs, and so many other examples. 

Even though he only got a year to be back with his brother after he returned from prison, after Bernard died, so many people reached out to tell him all the stories they had about his support and leadership.

And Washington knew he needed to step up and be a leader — for his brother’s kids, and for others who may be in similar situations that he grew up in. 

Healing and starting a business

Dennis Davis, known as “Yogi Den,”  has known Washington and his brother since they were little kids. They grew up together on Woolston Avenue in West Oak Lane, across the street from each other. 

They raced bikes together down that street. And later, as adults, Yogi Den would be tight with Bernard, staying close with Chris but not in touch on a regular basis. 

But when Bernard died, it led Yogi Den down a path of teaching yoga and creating yoga classes with storytelling. That’s another story. 

But his first time doing yoga led him into a meditation, where Bernard came to him. 

“Through this meditation, he was able to tell me and share with me that it wasn’t my fault. And I was holding on to guilt that he had passed away, thinking it was my fault, because two days before he passed, I was supposed to meet with him and go out with him, and I didn’t. And I thought that if I’d have just met with him, I could have told him I loved him one last time. I could have shared with him,  maybe don’t go a certain way.”

Now, Yogi Den and Washington share a vision of reaching out to the community via story, movement, and promoting physical and mental well-being. 

Yogi Den sees exactly how Washington pushed himself to heal, and he shares how proud he is of his determination and strength, despite the countless losses he has endured. And he sees how Bernard’s death opened up so many things in Washington. 

He mentions how Bernard was always trying to ensure the youth around him were taken care of, especially if they reminded him of himself growing up. And in yoga terms, he likens Chris’s journey to that of a lotus flower, emerging from the mud.

“Now, (Chris) started to open up those petals, and he started to take on certain traits of his brother. So when I saw that happen, I said, ‘Okay, so they’re no longer two, now they’re one.’ He’s accepted his spirit within him.”

He continued: “What Chris did was say… My brother and I were on a path to health and wellness. We were on a path to holistic healing, taking care of our body, mind, and our spirit. My brother passed away, but his body passed away. So his body is dead, but his spirit is still alive. And I can work with that.” 

And the work led him to build a brand and a business that wasn’t just a fitness center, but a community hub. 

Washington partnered with New Beginning Foundation, an organization dedicated to youth programming and empowerment, and in the last two years, was able to create a gym inside their space on Greene Street.

He began connecting with like-minded trainers, fitness instructors, and other entrepreneurs who he could see were interested in both financial success and community health. He started creating motivational content online to show the journey he was on. 

“I see somebody, or see leaders, and I say, you don’t have to do it alone,” said Washington.

He would even do workouts outside on the sidewalk to get other people in the neighborhood interested in what he was doing. 

And one of those connections led him to Philadelphia Ceasefire.

Working with Philadelphia CeaseFire

Marla Davis Bellamy is the director of Philadelphia CeaseFire, an organization that works with evidence-based models and data to prevent gun violence and create solutions from the perspective that gun violence is a public health issue and needs to be treated as such. 

Bellamy heard about Washington and his work through one of their outreach supervisors. They knew that Bellamy had been looking for a fitness trainer who could also understand some of the challenges and issues that many of their clients would face when participating in the initiative. 

The initiative was inspired by a program in Boston called InnerCity Weightlifting, which uses fitness and personal training to empower high-risk individuals and stop gun violence. They have expanded their program into a location in Chicago. 

InnerCity Weightlifting’s model trains high-risk individuals to become personal trainers at their gym locations. The model offers a purposeful and sustainable job and income, accompanied by the physical and mental benefits of fitness.

Cure Violence Global, which created the public health methodology approach, has one of its pillars being identifying and changing the behaviors of people highest at risk of being involved in violence. According to their data, using these public health approaches in New York this year has helped reduce shootings by 21%.

Philadelphia CeaseFire wants to use its current location at Braid Mill, which is being outfitted with a gym, and initiate similar programming. They want to open up the space to all community violence intervention (CVI) programs in the city to use, like PAAN, Group Violence Intervention (GVI), among others.

They have a grant to fund the program through the Department of Public Health and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services (DBHIDS), and their goal is to begin this December. They want Washington to run the program. 

“I think Chris is a wonderful human being, but also an example,” says Bellamy. 

“He’s lived this journey, he’s lost his brother. He is, what we kind of call, somewhat of an ambassador, but similar to, you want to say, Alcoholics Anonymous, where they utilize people who are former alcoholics to talk to folks who are going through a similar experience. I think those kinds of connections are invaluable.”

For Chris Washington, he wants to keep using his story and his determination to help others heal and connect to their own purpose. 

“I like to help them fast forward through life without having to go through the trauma, or be strong enough to go through the trauma and come out bigger and stronger.”