Trailblazers : Healthy Lifestyles Project : The New Jersey Self-Advocacy Project : Programs : The Arc of New Jersey

About Trailblazers

Join our virtual movement club, created for people with IDD to lead the way into living healthier lives. Members will make personal goals, socialize, and learn all about hiking, nature, & fitness. Choose your own path and how to follow it, and join us each week to talk about it!

The "Trailblazers" club is a part of The Healthy Lifestyles Project (HLP). HLP is a program of The Arc of New Jersey and receives funding through a grant awarded by The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey.

How To Join

Join us each Tuesday in June - September
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
More information on all of our programming can be found below

June 3rd: Introductory Meeting on Zoom - Register here
September 30th: Final Meeting and Dance Party on Zoom - Register here

Your choice of activity:

Virtual Fitness Session with IHT on Zoom - Register here
In-person hike with the NJSAP Team - RSVP here

Music League: All Summer - Join the League here

"Trailblazers" All Activities Flyer

Trail Tuesdays

Every Tuesday: June 10th - Sept. 23rd
RSVP here

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Union County's Watchung Reservation
Trailside Nature & Science Center Parking Lot
452 New Providence Road, Mountainside, NJ

All participants must wear clothing and footwear appropriate for walking trails. Bathrooms and water are available and there are picnic areas if you wish to eat lunch after the hike. A short stretch and training will take place before we begin walking. Please be timely and make sure to RSVP!

There are paved and unpaved trail options as well as a an indoor Nature Center. All abilities and skill levels are welcome! We will send reminders to those who RSVP with updates regarding any inclement weather. Make to sure to let us know if you are coming!

Please call Frankie (732-749-8514) if you have any questions or issues.

Trail Tuesdays Flyer

Training Tuesdays

Every Tuesday: June 10th - Sept. 23rd
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Virtually on Zoom: Register Here!

This event will explore ways to stay in shape at home for students and adults with IDD. A personal fitness trainer from IHT (In-Home Training LLC) will lead virtual trainings sessions showing how to stretch, perform body weight exercises, and practice self-care. Goal setting will also be discussed.

"My goal of the training sessions are to help people understand that they can improve their quality of life by focusing on overall wellness. Physical well-being is an excellent starting point towards living a healthier lifestyle." - Matt Locascio, Owner of IHT, http://ihtnj.com

Open both to beginners and fitness enthusiasts! If you need an accommodation during the session, the trainer will be happy to assist you in finding a way that works for you safely.

Training Tuesdays Flyer

Music League

Come jam with us! Submit a song that fits the weekly theme and vote on your favorites in the “Trailblazers” Music League! Join our league here.
Blending music discovery and creative competition, Music League helps you discover new music, share your favorites, and play against your friends.

Here’s how it works:

Our league is made up of a 15 rounds.
Each round has a musical theme, like ‘Movie Soundtrack’ or ‘Duets.'
When the round opens, league players are notified to submit a song that fits the theme.
When everyone has submitted (or the submission deadline of Tuesday morning arrives), everyone receives a link to the playlist to listen, consider, and then return to Music League to assign points and add comments to reminisce, toast and comment.
Once the votes are in, everyone will be able to see the results, including who submitted what, how everyone voted, and all the comments.
Points are earned from round to round and accumulate through the entire league until a winner is crowned.

If you miss a song submission deadline, you can’t vote on the other songs (but you still get to listen).
A Spotify account is required (no paid subscription necessary) to log in. You can use the Music League app or the website to play. Songs will be played during our weekly “Trailblazers” Hikes each Tuesday.

We’ll also be hosting virtual dance party with the top songs from each week on September 30th at 11 AM. Winners will receive a prize!

Music League Flyer

Past Years

Training Handouts

Crafted by Firespring

Privacy Policy

What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.