SHE WENT FROM HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUT TO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSWOMAN. NOW SHE’S HELPING OTHERS BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY
By the time Sharon Gallant was 16, she was a high-school dropout who had witnessed her parents’ struggle with drug addiction and the intergenerational effects of poverty. A year later, she gave birth to a baby girl, a life event that would inspire Gallant into action. “I was very motivated to create a different outcome for her,” she recalls.
That motivation prompted Gallant to eventually build a highly successful career in financial services. Yet, after finding the capacity to pull herself out from under, she wanted to help other girls do the same. “I recognized that, while I didn’t want what was around me and felt capable of doing more, I really had no pathway to get there,” says Gallant, a recent BMO Celebrating Women honouree in the category of Community and Charitable Giving.
She recognized something else as well: successful people set goals. As a serious runner, Gallant was struck by the similarities between training for a 5k and goal-setting in life. “The more I immersed myself in sport,” she says, “the more I appreciated the lessons it taught me about life and how to navigate it.”
When Gallant learned about income disparity in the Hamilton area – where 25 per cent of girls live below the poverty line, with some pockets as high as 50 to 70 per cent— her life experience came full circle. “I realized that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re guilty of, at the very least, perpetuating the problem,” she says.
In 2009, she launched the Fit Active Beautiful Foundation (FAB) – a charity dedicated to empowering young girls, particularly from low-income communities – with the Girls 5K Challenge, a free 12-week running program for girls in grades 6 to 8. Participants take part in four different events, culminating in a 5k run and, to remove all barriers to participation, every girl receives a T-shirt, running shoes, a goal-setting journal, healthy snacks and the cost of admission to the race.
The idea is to challenge them to take steps they may not have otherwise, building self-esteem and transforming a mindset in the process. By the time they cross the finish
THE MORE I IMMERSED MYSELF IN SPORT, THE MORE I APPRECIATED THE LESSONS IT TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE AND HOW TO NAVIGATE IT.
line, “you can literally see the shift from ‘I did not think I could do that’ to ‘I just did that,’” Gallant explains.
Today FAB boasts 12 running programs, 200 participants and a ratio of four coaches to 20 girls. Gallant feels the time may be right to expand her local model to communities across Canada and beyond.
“It’s critically important to encourage girls to create their own path in life through an empowerment lens,” Gallant says, “so that they have the confidence to choose the path that they feel is best for them.”