Office of Public Affairs
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Embargoed for Sunday, April 27, Noon EDT
Contacts: Allison Barlow, Johns Hopkins School of Public health
phone (410-955-6931) or pager (410-289--6504)
Carl Francis, NFLPA (202-463-2200)
NFL PLAYERS AND JOHNS HOPKINS TEAM UP TO HELP AMERICAN
INDIAN TEENS
The enormously successful partnership between professional football players and
American Indian teens, which was designed to help those teens stay in school and
resist alcohol and drug use, will be highlighted as one of the country's most
promising new initiatives at the President's Summit for America's Future. The
Summit will take place in Philadelphia, Pa., from April 27 to April 29, chaired by
General Colin Powell.
Now in its second year, the program is a joint venture of the NFL Players
Association (NFLPA), the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, and a
number of Indian tribes. NFL veteran and community service champion Nick
Lowery led this effort to help American Indian teens.
This spring, the NFLPA, Johns Hopkins Center and the Nick Lowery Charitable
Foundation formalized a three-year partnership to develop a unique pro-athlete
mentoring program for Indian youth, who face the most daunting health and social
risks of any ethnic group in the U.S. The program is being designed to combat high
rates of high school drop out, alcohol and drug abuse, depression, suicide, gang
involvement and low self-esteem. Says Gene Upshaw, Executive Director of the
NFLPA, "The NFLPA is proud to join Johns Hopkins, a world leader in health
promotion, to mobilize the power and good will of our professional athletes behind a
mission to improve the health and future of Indian youth."
By the Year 2,000, the partners aim to unfold the following core program
components in up to 10 reservation-based schools:
1) a peer leadership and healthy lifestyles curriculum linked to existing athletic
programs,
2) regular in-school motivational rallies featuring speeches by visiting NFL
mentors,
3) community service and recreational activities organized by tribal police
groups,
4)local mass media campaigns produced by and for Native youth, with technical
assistance from Hopkins communication experts, to encourage program values and
goals, and
5)an annual inter-tribal fitness and life skills camp led by NFL players and other
pro-athletes, at which student-athlete scholarships and a community service award
will be presented.
This effort took root on June 21-22, 1996, when Johns Hopkins and Nick Lowery,
who had become a special friend to Hopkins Center for American Indian Health,
hosted an unprecedented two-day NFL football and life skills camp in Chinle,
Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. Lowery recruited seven other NFL players to
assist, including former Jets player Clark Gaines, Regional Director of the NFLPA,
who ultimately bridged the NFLPA's commitment to the program.
The new school-based program will be launched this year, when an expanded version
of the camp is held on June 1-2, 1997, again in Chinle. Among the 15 NFL players
committed to take part are:
* Nick Lowery (formerly of Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets)
* Derek Kennard (Cowboys)
* Rob Moore (Arizona Cardinals)
* Christian Okoye (formerly of the Chiefs)
* Mike Bell (formerly of the Chiefs)
* Pellom McDaniels (Chiefs)
* Clark Gaines (formerly of the Jets, now Regional Director of the NFLPA)
* Gene Washington (formerly of the San Francisco 49ers, now Director of Football
Development, NFL)
Other NFL players are being recruited for the launch, in addition to a host of Native
American entertainers and speakers who will honor the cultural heritage of the tribal
participants.
More than 150 Indian teens from 8 states representing at least 10 tribes including the
Navajo, White Mountain Apache, Zuni, Hopi, Pima, Lakota, Kiowa/Comanche,
Ojibway, Tohono O'Odham, and Paiute/Washoe are signed up to take part in the
June launch. In addition, this year a soccer component will be added for 50 Navajo
junior high school boys and girls, led by three pro-soccer players, including Todd
Beane, a Reno Rattler and assistant soccer coach at Dartmouth College.
"American Indians come from a heritage of some of the most healthy, robust
individuals who have walked the Earth," says Mathu Santosham, M.D., M.P.H.,
director of Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. "By bringing NFL
players and other pro-athletes to reservations to work one-on-one with youth, we will
do all we can to help renew the legacy of health and athleticism for Indian people."
Lowery adds, "The NFL players involved in this program want to show Indian youth
that we believe fully in them and their future. We care about them not only as
athletes, but as students, people and future leaders of their communities."
More about the Partners:
The Center for American Indian Health was founded at the Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health in 1991, based on more than 15 years of collaboration between
Hopkins health professionals and American Indian tribes. The mission of the Center
is to work in partnership with tribes to raise the health and self-sufficiency of tribes
to the highest possible level.
The NFL Players Association is a non-profit, professional sports organization which
represents the best interest and welfare of NFL players. Currently this mandate
encompasses 2,000 active players and 3,500 retired. One of the NFLPA's major
duties is to provide assistance to charitable and community organizations throughout
the country.
Nick Lowery is the most accurate field goal kicker of the 1990s. On October 13,
1997 he became the all-time NFL record holder for most career field goals. In his
off-seasons, he has served on the staffs of three White House Presidents to promote
issues from drug abuse prevention to national service. The Nick Lowery Charitable
Foundation has been instrumental to the growth of this program.
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To set up interviews, please contact: Allison Barlow at (410) 955-6931 or Carl
Francis (202) 463-2200.
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