TGP advances health equity by providing health education for youth, connecting youth and their families to health services, and mobilizing NCAA athletes to be public health leaders.
Since 2009, we have partnered with more than 50 schools to provide weekly health education programs that increase health literacy and improve health-related attitudes and behaviors.
Our innovative model trains NCAA athletes as volunteer health educators and role models. These athletes then work once per week throughout the academic semester, delivering a structured series of one-hour modules on mental, physical, and sexual health during middle school PE classes. Youth that complete TGP programs not only increase their health literacy, but they also feel more comfortable talking openly about mental, physical, and sexual health, and they are less intimidated to seek help from clinical and social providers.
TGP’s model for health education is rooted in movement and physical activity, and our curriculum includes more than 30 games-based activities that each carry distinct health messages. Using sports to teach about health not only makes our curriculum fun and engaging, but it also enables us to help our schools meet physical education requirements at the same time as achieving their health education goals.
We reach students throughout each year of middle school, creating a 3-year pipeline that includes mental, physical, and sexual health. We built these curricula using extensive community research that incorporate diverse perspectives about how best to improve adolescent health. In addition to our pipeline programs, we offer family programs for parents and caregivers and an end-of-program celebration to connect youth with clinical health providers in their neighborhoods. Good health begins at the community level, and we believe that everyone has a role to play in advancing health equity.
