It started with a conversation Jackie Hoffman wasn’t supposed to hear.

Sitting on the couch during the early days of the pandemic, Jackie overheard his mom on the phone with her doctor. For the first time, he listened as someone he loved—his lifelong superhero—was told she was at risk. Hypertension. Cardiovascular disease. Stroke.

“For a person that's been a superhero for me my whole life, I wanted to at least help her have a chance and help her fight for a better quality of life.”

So he challenged her to walk a mile a day. “She took the challenge,” Jackie said. “She did the work.”

Those health problems weren’t just threatening his mom, but disproportionately for the Black and brown community in Chicago. Her simple mile walk became the seed for something far greater: Peace Runners 773, a Chicago running club and nonprofit that uses movement—running, walking, yoga, strength, and more—as a tool for health equity and collective empowerment.

From a mile to a westside Chicago movement

Jackie’s mom’s transformation was profound. Over time, she lost more than 60 pounds, went from 13 medications to zero, and cut her doctor visits in half. And for Jackie, her journey sparked a deeper awareness of the systemic health disparities in his own neighborhood.

He learned that the average life expectancy around Garfield Park, where Peace Runners is based, is just 66 years—compared to 85 just a few miles away in downtown Chicago.

Being outdoors, walking with his mom through the city, something shifted. He wanted others to have the same opportunity to move, to heal, to live longer.

“That’s what Peace Runners is, a space that’s led with love that provides access for people to move—for them to be better, for them to be healthier, for them to really take themselves to the next level,” he said.

Peace Runners 773 quickly grew into a community group defined by different programs. There’s a youth run club. A 5K training program. Half-marathon and marathon training. A “Young at Heart” crew for adults age 55 and up who meet for walking, yoga, Zumba, and kickboxing. All led by volunteers, coaches, and community members who believe in the mission. It’s a Chicago running club, but more.

The mission is holistic and rooted in an awareness of what health equity means. “We gotta make the playing field equal,” Jackie said. “That means somebody learning about the proper things to eat, like putting veggies in a couple of your meals every day. It’s learning that 15 to 20 minutes of movement provides a whole different quality of life.”

As for movement, in 2024 alone, Peace Runners helped:

• 1,100 people complete a 5K
• 130 people finish a half-marathon
• 42 runners cross the finish line at the Chicago Marathon

Even more remarkable: many of these participants had never run before, including people who see the group running in Garfield Park then end up joining for the next one.

“I think that that's the sign of a great community,” Jackie says.

Racing for change, across the world

Jackie’s journey as a runner has become deeply intertwined with his work as a leader. He recently ran the Tokyo Marathon wearing his Peace Runners singlet with the number 1968 on the back—a reference to the year of the Martin Luther King riots and the start of decades of disinvestment in his community.

Next up: Boston. Then Sydney. He’ll be joined by a group of Peace Runners traveling to Australia to raise funds for the organization’s future—program expansion, growing initiatives, and, most urgently, a permanent community center.

The center will provide a safe space for kids and the community to gather and have a place for indoor movement.

Managing growth with Heylo

With Peace Runners growing rapidly, Jackie and his team needed a better way to stay organized and communicate across their different programs.

“We were using WhatsApp. But important information was getting lost,” Jackie said. Now he makes announcements in Heylo. “It kind of sticks to it and everybody can see it.”

The clarity has been crucial.

“Heylo has been like so good for us, because we have so many different things going on and so many different programs and initiatives. It’s been helping us separate different groups to make sure that everything is super organized.”

Full circle

Today, Jackie’s mom is more than a participant in Peace Runners—she’s a leader of the Young at Heart group.

“I always tell her that I haven't bought that big house that I promised her as a kid, but if I provided her a better quality of life, I think that's equivalent,” Jackie says.

Peace Runners has become Jackie’s full-time purpose—if not yet his full-time job.

“I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing this for everybody,” he said. “I'm doing this for my mom, I'm doing this for my wife, I'm doing this for my family, my community, Chicago. There needs to be change and sometimes you just have the voice to make the changes happen.”

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