The Motion Initiative (TMI) uses bicycles to “facilitate adventure, freedom, and hope, through the gateway of cycling, to the inner city youth of Grand Rapids, Michigan.”
TMI teach children and youth bike maintenance skills, with older volunteers working at their mobile community repair shop. Sweat equity can be traded in for a bicycle in the program’s “Earn-A-Bike” program. TMI also organizes neighborhood rides and skills clinics. The TMI also runs a Coop Bike Shop where the repair programs take place with a bike shop lounge “where loitering is encouraged and the smell of the bike shop is enjoyed!” 🙂
TMI uses the bicycle chain ‘as a metaphor for freedom.’ Bicycle are, of course, much more than just a metaphor. For children and adults, bicycles are an avenue for independence and liberty. TMI is an overtly Christian ministry, and the overall objective of TMI is “a deeper connection to life through the gateway of bicycling.”
More at Beliefnet: Ministry repairs kids’ bikes and lives.