For the 15th year in a row, Reach Within, a programme of the Bartholomew J Lawson Foundation for Children, a local Grenada charity, and the main project of the Caribbean Centre for Health Equity of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation at St George’s University, recruited a team of runners for the 2025 TCS NYC Marathon, all of whom raised funding to support Reach Within’s mission in empowering Grenada’s most vulnerable children and teens.
15 energetic runners collectively raised $60,000, all of which will be applied to programming in Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique.
Reach Within began its work in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, providing trauma-healing classes for parents and their children, as well as rebuilding schools devastated by the disaster. Since then, it has implemented school-based programmes focused on literacy training, recreation, healthcare, and food supplementation in rural schools, as well as trauma-healing programmes for infants, children, and teens living in Grenada’s care homes. Reach Within believes that trauma doesn’t define a person’s future, but rather resilience does. To that end, its programmes are geared toward teaching even the most fragile young people that they too, can learn to thrive. Reach Within provides therapeutic classes, including drumming, sports, yoga, as well as caregiver training, individual and group mentoring and counselling. It also runs a drop-in centre on Lucas Street that serves as a hub of healing for teens and young adults who have aged out of the Child Protection Agency’s care home system.
Running 26.2 miles in a marathon takes courage, determination, and grit- all the qualities that Reach Within works to impart to those young people in its charge. One step at a time, healing is possible. Dr Karen Lawson, Reach Within’s founder, said, “It has been a privilege to host people from Grenada and all over the world on our annual marathon team and to see the passion with which they complete their mission, knowing that each of their miles translates into a better life for young people who deserve healing, growth and the fulfillment of their dreams.”
Please contact Donnet Williams, Reach Within’s General Manager, at [email protected], if you wish to volunteer your time, donate food to our drop-in centre’s food pantry, or learn more about the 2026 TCS NYC Marathon.
Reach Within
