The Grassroot Project

The Grassroot Project serves to educate at-risk youth from Washington D.C. about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention by utilizing Division I "student-athlete" role models.

The Grassroot Project Goals:

• To create a citywide core of athletes of all ages in the fight against AIDS in D.C.
• To work with schools and community based groups to implement our HIV prevention program.
• To continually provide systematic monitoring and evaluation of our innovative curriculum and program model.

The Grassroot Project Tactics:

• To empower at-risk youth in D.C. with the knowledge and support to encourage healthy, responsible lives.
• To use sports, games, and athlete role models as a vehicle to open up discussion about serious issues.
• To expose Division I athletes to issues of social inequalities in education and health and to engage them with the vision that they can make a difference in the lives of these young kids.

Where We Work:

We work in D.C. Public schools, currently at Francis Stevens Middle School, Browne Gibbs Young Middle School, and at the Boys & Girls Club in Southeast D.C., and are currently looking to expand our programs.

The Curriculum at a Glance:

Our partnership with MetroTeen Aids has allowed us to test our curriculum with staff and peer educators in order to adapt a curriculum that has been proven to be successful in countries all over the world. Our coaches are trained with this material and take it to the classrooms in D.C. where youth are engaged with interactive learning techniques that form a strong foundation for their knowledge of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

The Launch of TEAM UP

In 2010, The Grassroot Project launched the Team Up campaign, a sports-based HIV/AIDS education program uniting 15 at risk youth in Washington, DC and Soweto, South Africa. Each student in DC is partnered with a 'teammate' in Soweto, and for six weeks they will participate in the same program side by side. To promote discussion, they will be provided with their own flipcams to share what they are learning and get to know each other on a personal level. The campaign will culminate in June 2010 with a ten day trip to South Africa where the teammates will meet each other, participate in an AIDS awareness event and together attend a World Cup Soccer match.

To find out more, check us out on the Team Up website