Youth Run NOLA (YRN) creates opportunities for young people in and around New Orleans to build healthier habits and a more interconnected community through running. YRN envisions a world in which our area’s young people drive individual and community health change.

YRN started in 2010 when a small group of teachers began running with their students after school. We've since grown into an established non-profit working with hundreds of youth and families a year, but our grassroots, community-driven, and dynamic nature remains core to who we are and how we operate. Nearly 80% of our runners are youth of color, and YRN is committed to racial and health equity. We see our role as facilitating young peoples’ leadership of community health change. YRN works with and alongside our community and families through our consistent engagement with and inclusion around program design and decision-making. 

While the current program model, in response to COVID-19, is an adapted combination of park-based, small-group and at-home workouts, traditionally Youth Run NOLA teacher-coaches and alumni-coaches host weekly school and park-based practices to train for monthly races (ranging in distance from 2 miles to half marathons). YRN is a sport-for-development organization and the program has always been free and non-competitive, with a goal of making walking, running, and movement of all kinds joyful and accessible to all.