PALM BAY, Fla. — A little encouragement can go a long way, and Coach Joe Luther knows that firsthand.

“When I am tired, it reburns the light. That will fuel anybody up,” said Luther, a fitness coach and founder of Just Right Living.

That’s why Luther and “Coach Chris” host a free public workout once a week for athletes with special needs and their community.

“It gets us moving a little more — it gets our guys practice interacting with the rest of the world,” Luther said. “We are out here on a nice, sunny day — moving. It’s good for everyone to go outside, so we try to make it as easy as possible to get into fitness.”

For athletes like Zander Roth, the workouts have been about much more than getting fit.

“They always help me out when I need it,” said Roth, a Just Right Living athlete. “They bring more confidence and more self-respect than I had because I always self-doubted myself.”

They instill positive mindsets, which is one of the main goals Luther set out to achieve when he started Just Right Living two years ago with his biggest role model.

“My mom had a really big heart for athletes with special needs, and I lost my mom (in) January of last year, so this is a way I am really able to connect with my mom,” Luther said. “The mission that she had is helping people feel great about themselves.”

Luther is honoring that mission and taking it one step further by helping his athletes, like Josh White, land real jobs.

White has worked on an ice cream truck for more than a year now, and throughout that time, he has blossomed into a confident young man.

“He has made so much growth," said Marie Darling, the owner of Marie’s Sweet Treats. "When he first came, he would not speak to anybody, so what we’ve seen today is just fantastic."

White grows every day and makes everyone around him proud.

“I want to make my friends happy and my family happy,” he said.