Although we’re only two months into the new year, 2026 has already been great to Jackie Hoffman, founder of the Garfield Park-based running nonprofit, Peace Runners 773.
Earlier this month, Hoffman was presented with the “Award of Excellence” by the national nonprofit Running USA, which supports those in the running industry; in January, the Bulls recognized Hoffman as a 2026 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Honoree. Peace Runners also partnered with the team for a night camp at the United Center on Feb. 23. But perhaps most satisfying for Hoffman was celebrating the grand opening of the Peace Runners 773 Wellness Headquarters on Feb. 21 in Garfield Park.
“All of this is really, really huge for me, thinking about the streets that I ran and walked as a young person, and now to be able to have a space, a whole space, to let other people know that it’s for them,” Hoffman said. “Make no doubt about it, because it’s from a West Side, from a Garfield Park resident.”
The new headquarters, located at 3563 W. Fifth Ave., was previously a liquor store, which Hoffman takes pride in as a way of transforming the community.
“[We’re] changing a liquor store into a wellness space,” Hoffman told The TRiiBE ahead of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “So, actually taking space in our community. A space for people to come to, for our young people to come to, for our youth program, for our seniors to come to our senior program, but to actually hold space within the community.”
The ceremony took place after the Peace Runners’ annual Black is Beautiful 5k run in Garfield Park on Saturday, which has occurred for the past four years.
“We had over 350 people do the Black is Beautiful 5K. We ran through Garfield Park first at nine o’clock, and we finished off with the ribbon cutting,” Hoffman said. “So it was cool to see so many people pull up, run, walk in the community first, and then actually come to the ribbon cutting.”
As a running-focused organization, Peace Runners 773 mostly convenes outside, but the new wellness headquarters will offer space for various workshops, Hoffman explained.
“[The headquarters] will be used as a community hub in the morning,” he told The TRiiBE. “We will have some senior programs, some senior workshops, some nutrition workshops [and] mental health workshops.”
A lifelong Garfield Park resident, Hoffman routinely runs through his community, something he previously told The TRiiBE he didn’t see other Black people doing. He founded Peace Runners in 2020 to encourage running in the Garfield Field Park community, inspired by his mom’s testimony of overcoming high blood pressure and obesity.
“She was on 13 medications and my mom started to walk, and she started to do this one-mile-a-day challenge,” Hoffman said. “When she started to walk, my mom lost over 60 pounds. Her medication went from 13 to zero, and her doctor visit got extended from every two months to every six months.”
Hoffman’s mother was honored with the duty of cutting the ribbon at the new wellness headquarters to celebrate a new chapter for the organization. She also leads the senior wellness program, the Young at Hearts. The organization features various programs, including a youth running club and its well-known Out West Run Program, which offers free training for new and experienced runners.
This year, Peace Runners 773 celebrates six years of motivating not only West Siders, but all Chicagoans to run as a step toward a healthier lifestyle. West Garfield Park residents have a 20-year shorter life expectancy compared to downtown residents. This is something that Hoffman seeks to address through Peace Runners 773 while also casting a new light on Garfield Park as a whole.
“Nobody can no longer say that Garfield Park isn’t a walkable or runnable community, because the community ultimately decides if this community is walkable or runnable,” Hoffman said. “Who’s the person that said that this community isn’t walkable to what standard is that? And I think that we now have shifted the narrative of what’s walkable and runnable, and now it’s us actually running our community.”
Since its start, Peace Runners 773 met regularly at the Garfield Field House Golden Dome, a space that Hoffman said the club outgrew, due to the number of people showing up for the running club and ongoing programming run by the Chicago Park District.
“We just started growing. We really grew out of every space that we’ve been in, because it started to get to the point where it was Saturdays where we had 150 people, or it’s days during a week where we needed to do yoga and we needed to do wellness workshops,” he said.
The new headquarters will provide those who don’t necessarily want to run with an area for other activities, such as yoga or strength training.
“Health and wellness, it’s different for everybody. Like for me, it might be running. For you, it might be yoga,” Hoffman said. “And if you do yoga three, four times a week, you just as good as me running three, four times a week.”
Hoffman said he began his lease agreement for the space in January after putting an inquiry on Facebook, alerting his network that he was looking for a new headquarters. The owner of the Fifth Avenue property messaged him about the availability of commercial space in the mixed-use building.
Hoffman says he hopes the headquarters becomes a staple in the community and a place where residents can have many first-time experiences.
“I remember growing up in Garfield Park. I remember every spot I went to, I remember every grocery store I went to, I remember every corner store I went to, where I got my shoes and cheese and chips,” Hoffman recalled. “I think that now we’re talking about a staple where people can come and they can remember their first walk, their runners session, their first Pilates [class].”
Through partnerships with other Garfield Park nonprofits such as Marillac Saint Vincent and the performing arts organization BandWith Chicago, whose drumline during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Hoffman said the Wellness Headquarters is broadening the wider ecosystem of West Side-based nonprofits.
“It’s an ecosystem on the West Side,” Hoffman said. “That was like one big community all coming together as the West Side, as Garfield Park, and now we all moving together, because that’s when the change happens, and that’s what makes people want to stay in their community.”
Peace Runners 773 programming takes place Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
