Our Shifting Gears Program Expanded to a New Facility This Month - Bringing Benefits to an Entirely New Group of Women
The other day, we were thrilled to hear a heartfelt testimonial from one of our Shifting Gears participants - a reflection that captured the impact of all our programs. Even more exciting, her story came just as we expanded the program into a second facility. It felt like a powerful moment of affirmation for all the work that’s gone into making the expansion happen!
Shifting Gears is a program Boise Bicycle Project runs in partnership with the Idaho Department of Corrections, where it operates an off-site bike shop at IDOC facilities and conducts a weekly lesson with incarcerated women.
Participants in the program receive bike mechanic training and help our shop build bikes we donate through referral partners from around the community. In exchange for that work in our program, Shifting Gears participants also receive a bicycle for themself or a loved one and support in their search for a job once they are released.
The program has been a long-time focus for Boise Bicycle Project, but was paused for several years beginning in 2020. We were able to revive Shifting Gears in 2023 at the South Boise Women’s Correctional Center, where more than 70 women have worked in the program since June of that year.
Now, we have launched the program at the South Idaho Correctional Institution and are working with 10 more women, each learning how to work on a bicycle for the very first time!
The week before we launched the expansion, we were hosting the Shifting Gears participant group from South Boise at our main shop for their weekly bike mechanic lesson. During the visit, we also had the chance to meet a brand-new participant visiting our space for the very first time. As we got to chatting, she mentioned that her children had actually been to our shop just the weekend before during a special bike sale where families paid what they could for kids bikes to be used over the summer.
Later that week, she had the chance to talk to her kids, who were over the moon about their new bikes. When she asked how they managed to get them, they told her they’d discovered our shop and picked them out during the sale. She couldn’t help but laugh - realizing she had just enrolled in one of our programs herself. By the time she’s released, she said, she’ll be able to teach her kids how to work on those new bikes of theirs!
We’d be hard pressed to find a better summary of our programs, as everything we work to do can be boiled down to either setting individuals up with dependable transportation or teaching them new, empowering skills. The best part about the Shifting Gears Program is that it does both.
The revival of the Shifting Gears program hasn’t only allowed Boise Bicycle Project to increase the number of bikes it donates, but has helped us run additional community events as well including frequent BASH (bicycle and safety hour) events where we plan a giveaway with a referral partner and the women in the program help to run a bicycle riding course where the children receiving bikes can test out their new ride allowing the Shifting Gears participants to see exactly who their hard work is benefiting and to teach the kids safe riding habits.
For many participants, including one of our recent graduates of the program, Kayla, the chance to work in the community becomes their favorite part of the program.
“Being able to attend events and to see the expression on the children’s faces as well as seeing the bikes I have refurbished get donated,” Kayla said when asked what her favorite part of the program was. “It meant more than I can express. It was such an honor to be chosen to participate in the program. Being able to be part of a bigger cause in helping dreams come true has opened a newfound love of service for me.”
It isn’t only at our community events where Shifting Gears participants have to teach new skills, however. Because we only make it to the prison facilities once a week for instruction, we also ask participants in the program to serve as peer mentors and to help teach new enrollees the bike mechanics they have learned.
It’s truly a pleasure anytime you can witness someone taking the time to learn a new skill and then working to pass that skill on to benefit others. The brilliance of the bicycle is how simple and affordable it makes the opportunity to gift others with new life-enhancing skills, and we build our programs around identifying ways to engage individuals who can benefit from learning bike mechanics.
The Shifting Gears Program is growing into one of our most varied and exciting programs to date, and we are thrilled for this opportunity to bring it to a new site thanks to the support of our community!
- Benton Smith, Programs Director
