Darien Thomas

Grassroots Health has built an innovative model that provides low-cost, wrap-around health promotion programs for youth. We are a team of more than 2,000 NCAA varsity athletes and over 10,000 DC teens who are committed to making our nation’s cities healthier. Grassroots Health capitalizes on the excitement, relatability, and popularity of sports to provide much-needed health literacy and social empowerment programs to middle school youth. The only way for us to succeed is to believe in the power of youth to make a difference. In addition to providing health education to middle school youth, we invest in the leadership training, cultural competency, and professional skills of hundreds of NCAA varsity athletes who serve as our program facilitators. With our approach to re-imagining health education, schools are not only able to reach national health and physical education standards, but they are also able to provide health education in a format that students enjoy, that is community-centered, and that is led by near-peer role models. As a result of programs, middle schoolers demonstrate increased health knowledge and improve their ability to apply this knowledge in their own lives, ultimately creating positive health behaviors and habits. In addition, our college student-athlete volunteers enter the workforce ready to be active community members and champions of health equity.