ABOUT THE CHARITY

The Gridiron Alliance, NFP was organized exclusively for charitable, literary and educational purposes.  Specifically, the Gridiron Alliance, NFP was organized to help improve the lives of people who have been seriously injured or paralyzed playing school sports and to establish an improved standard of school sport safety to help prevent such injuries from occurring in the future.

Despite best efforts to improve school sport safety, every year, a dozen young athletes will become paralyzed from injuries they received from high school football alone.  The injured students will continue to fight their injury long after the game is over and the spectators have gone home.  The tragedy is that in most cases, these injuries might have been prevented if those involved were more aware of the issues pertaining to sports safety. 

The mission of the Gridiron Alliance is twofold — To provide essential outreach to students catastrophically injured in school sports, and to prevent future injuries to all student athletes by making school sports as safe as they can be.  To accomplish this mission, we will provide the following outreach and prevention programs.

OUTREACH

Outreach Programs to help Athletes Catastrophically Injured in School Sports -- The Gridiron Alliance recognizes that school sports related injuries have and will occur—accidents happen.  The impact of catastrophic injuries on the young athlete and the family can be devastating—emotionally, physically, and financially.  Through outreach and educational programs, the Gridiron Alliance will help both the family and the injured athlete adjust to and meet the extraordinary challenges they will face in the weeks, months and years following the injury. 

Unique to the Gridiron Alliance, is our core belief that nobody understands the trauma resulting from a paralyzing sport injury more than someone who has gone through it.  The Gridiron Alliance has enlisted several young football players who each became paralyzed as a result of a high school football injury.  These young men are keenly aware of the emotional and physical rollercoaster the newly injured players face.  More than most, they understand the value of enlightened coaching and team support.  From this framework, they become a foundation of strength, hope and understanding to inspire, support and motivate the newly injured athlete.  Because these unique and specialized coaches are veterans of the battle that few have experienced, we call them the “Gridiron Warriors.”  Coupled with other professional and paraprofessional outreach programs, the Gridiron Warriors can touch, move and inspire the newly injured player and assure them that while their life may never be the same, it can be extraordinary. 

The Gridiron Warrior Outreach Program is based on compassion, experience, knowledge and understanding.  The objectives of this program are to help the newly injured athlete and their family find the tools, experience, resources and inner strength they need to not only survive the injury, but to flourish as a self directed and goal driven team player.  Additionally, the Gridiron Warrior Outreach Program will act as a clearing house for finding and making the best information and resources available for the entire family. 

The Gridiron Warriors remind us that what started out as a team sport, remains a team sport.  The Gridiron Warrior Outreach Program will continue to bring the fighting spirit of the Warriors with the best resource database available to ensure that no question ever goes unanswered and no opportunity to move ahead is lost.  The Gridiron Warrior Program will also engage professional  in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, nutritionist, experts in assistive technology, financial support services, specialized career planning and job training, as well as spiritual and emotional counselors to ensure the ongoing health and well-being of the whole person.

The Gridiron Warriors will act to support the newly injured player from a special level of understanding that only their experience can provide.  With the encouragement of the Gridiron Warriors and the help of the programs offered by the Gridiron Alliance, the newly injured player and their family will never have to face the challenges alone.

Information Programs To Provide Critical Information To Injured Players And Their Families -- Immediately following an injury, when the needs are the greatest and the time is most precious, the resources that might improve outcomes are often scarce and hard to find.  The Gridiron Alliance, NFP will offer programs to help secure the emotional, psychological and spiritual wellbeing of the newly injured athlete and their family.  The Alliance will also provide contact information for professional and paraprofessional resources that will ensure that help is available when it is needed.  Additionally, the Gridiron Alliance will create fully accessible, web-enabled applications to empower the player and their family by quickly connecting them with valuable knowledge, goods and services. 

Educational And Training Programs To Help Injured Students Complete Their Education -- A catastrophic injury from school sports not only ends the dream of a career playing sports, but it also can interfere with the student’s continuing education.  The fast-paced and highly competitive workplace is difficult to navigate under the best of circumstances.  Finding a meaningful career without an education places the injured athlete who lacks a college degree in a very difficult situation.  The lack of a degree may result in more life challenges than the sport injury itself.  Without an education to support their career choices, the injured athlete may never achieve a meaningful career and self-sufficiency.  The Gridiron Alliance, NFP will provide programs to encourage the student to continue with their education by assisting with career counseling, programs to facilitate completing their degree, specialized on-the-job training, distance learning, skill training and job placement.  The Alliance will help the player ensure that the limitations from the injury will remain in the past and the rewards from a successful career will be in their future.

PREVENTION

Educational and Promotional Programs to raise Public Awareness Concerning School Sport Safety -- The Gridiron Alliance, NFP will seek to build a consortium of all those interested and vested in school sport safety.  The Alliance will reach out to and invite corporate sponsors, community leaders, professional teams and athletes, professional healthcare organizations, and equipment manufacturers, to join the concerned schools, coaches, parents and students in an effort to make school sports as safe as they can be.  

Information and awareness programs will be launched to raise public understanding of the issues concerning school sport injuries and to help ensure the safest school sports are enjoyed at every level.  The Gridiron Alliance, NFP create a website portal to facilitate communication and social networking and bring focus on improved school sport safety.

Programs To Help Coordinate Allocation Of Human And Capital Resources -- The effectiveness of the much needed and well intentioned support given by caring and concerned organizations and individuals is frequently lost as a result of redundant programs, lack of coordinated efforts or targeted resources, inability to affect significant change from attending to the multitude of causes, and individual needs programs that exist on a national scale.  The result is frustrating to both the generous sponsors as well as those in need.  The Gridiron Alliance, NFP will work to establish a framework within which both local and national resources can be maximized to establish a new standard of sport safety to protect all school athletes. 

Together, the outreach programs and prevention programs will create and sustain a safety support system to improve school sport safety and help all currently injured players across the United States.