It’s not easy being a kid. Young people routinely face issues like bullying and peer pressure, often amid challenging circumstances like unstable home lives and neighborhood violence. Through our work in local communities, we touch on a variety of issues that impact the lives of young people – from providing healthy meals to supporting crucial mentoring programs. And now, we’re taking our efforts a step further.
This week, we kick off the NFL & United Way Character Playbook program, an initiative funded by the NFL Foundation and United Way and powered by EverFi, to help instill the skills teens and pre-teens need to grow into the leaders they were born to be.
We already know how important the middle school years are for developing the academic skills that enable long-term success, including high school graduation. But this critical time is also a transitional moment for students as they enter adolescence, a time when they are influenced more by their peers than by their families.
Character Playbook - Building Healthy Relationships is a digital course that uses evidence-based strategies to educate students on how to cultivate and maintain healthy relationships. The course will allow students to engage with true-to-life scenarios that include bystander intervention strategies and positive relationship examples.
Values like diligence, compassion and respect are not necessarily innate values – they are learned through experience and teaching. And it’s on us all to provide the skills and modeling to inspire this character at a young age.
We’re thrilled to bring this program to students across the United States to further our work uplifting communities and hope you’ll join us by spreading the word. Follow along at #CharacterPlaybook or visit characterplaybook.com for more details.