GirlTREK is the largest health movement for Black women in the U.S., organizing women to walk in their neighborhoods as a radical act of self-care and healing. As part of their mission to support Black women’s well-being, GirlTREK set out to go further: integrate workforce development into their programming and build a model grounded in the idea that economic security enables Black women to live longer, healthier lives while investing back into their communities.
GirlTREK | United States
Paving the way to helping black women heal and get ahead
In 2024 we supported GirlTREK to employ testing and learning strategies to develop and evolve a scale strategy for integrating workforce development into their national health movement.
August 12, 2026
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Our Approach
We guided GirlTREK through a 6-month intensive learning journey, as part of our Lean Impact for Scale Training program , followed by 3 months of lighter-touch strategic support. Our work was grounded in Lean Impact, helping the team move from planning bold ideas to testing them in the real world.
Together, we defined the foundations of a new scale strategy that built on GirlTREK’s grassroots strengths while opening new possibilities for economic empowerment.
Clarified the strategy and ambition
GirlTREK’s vision was bold, but the pathway to achieving it was uncharted. We helped the team articulate a clear, shared vision for scale, identifying who they wanted to reach, what systemic problem they were solving, and what long-term success could look like.
- Defined a clear ‘north star’ for impact through foundational guideposts that centred equity, healing, and practical opportunity.
- Created a learning roadmap to prioritise key unknowns and risks in integrating workforce development into their model.
- Structured work around minimum viable products (MVPs) to test hypotheses in the real world and iterate rapidly based on feedback.
- Explored what aspects of their approach were essential to preserve, and which could flex in service of scale.
Why this mattered: This alignment gave focus to the entire project. It created clarity across the organisation and ensured that decisions were rooted in a clear strategy.
Turned big ideas into testable steps
Using visual storyboards and practical facilitation tools, we supported the team in breaking down their vision into clear, testable hypotheses. We designed and executed learning loops to answer the most critical question: will Black women in GirlTREK’s community find value in these offerings?
- Multiple MVPs were tested, with early learnings highlighting community preference for variety, flexibility, and inspiration from relatable role models.
- Feedback showed the need to improve the value proposition and reduce time burden (e.g., concerns over the 5-day commitment).
- Data from early tests (e.g., average sign-up rating of 2.67/5) prompted iteration toward more compelling, relevant, and flexible offerings.
Why this mattered: It helped the team avoid assumptions and made it easier to translate strategy into immediate action. The path to scale became concrete, not abstract. The tests surfaced crucial insights early, like language that confused participants or formats that clashed with real-life constraints. GirlTREK was able to pivot before investing heavily.
Built internal capability
GirlTREK built their team’s skills and capabilities to move from one-off experiments to continuous learning. Teams could now use data, not guesswork, to decide what to refine, drop, or scale.
- Worked with a dedicated Lean Impact Lead, a core cross-functional team, and a Project Sponsor to drive experimentation, and ensure staff from across functions understood the new approach and felt ownership over it.
- Coached the team on developing MVPs, running learning loops, and using lean data trackers.
- Held workshops and reflection sessions to embed new habits and celebrate learning, even when tests failed.
Why this mattered: Learning didn’t sit with one person or team. It became an organisation-wide capability, something GirlTREK could take forward without external support.
Started developing a scale model
GirlTrek used the learnings, tests, and strategies to build a hypothesis for what their scale model could look like, grounded in community feedback and internal insight.
The team walked away with a stronger sense of what to test next, plus the internal tools, mindset, and shared language to keep learning and refining their approach as they go.
“The Spring Impact team are true thought leaders who help you target pain points and weed out barriers to help build an impactful strategy.”
— The GirlTREK team
