Z Zurich Foundation provides multi-year grant to support youth mental wellbeing through sports

NewsroomNewsMay 8, 2023

Global sport for social change organization will facilitate programming with a special focus on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.
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With youth mental wellbeing at crisis levels, global sport for social change foundation Beyond Sport is collaborating with Z Zurich Foundation and Zurich North America on a multi-year program to leverage sport to improve mental wellbeing for 13 to 19-year-olds in the United States.

Head in the Game (HITG), the new three-year program, will use a whole-system approach to bring together the U.S. sports sector — community, collegiate and professional — on youth mental health, build a targeted learning community to engage at neighborhood, city and state levels and provide resources and training concentrating on prevention, promotion and attitudinal change.

Recent studies have shown that while young people are increasingly struggling with issues such as anxiety, depression and loneliness, they are not receiving the support they need to address these challenges. The HITG collaboration was developed to address this alarming trend. Leveraging Beyond Sport’s extensive experience in leading sports initiatives that target complex social issues, as well as the Z Zurich Foundation and Zurich’s long running investment in public mental health services for young people, HITG will roll out over the next six months concentrating on California, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

The program will have a special focus on those who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and/or as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and others (LGBTQ+) because, while mental health challenges exist for all youth, these communities have been shown to be among the most vulnerable. Girls have also been highlighted as an especially impacted group in a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The four states were selected based on U.S. Census data showing that while the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ populations living in cities in these states have grown significantly over the last 10 years, youth mental wellbeing resources have not grown at pace to meet their needs.

“Sport’s positive impact on mental health as both a tool and an outlet has been well proven. With the U.S. declaring youth mental health a national emergency, this significant new investment and collaboration with Z Zurich Foundation and Zurich North America will allow Beyond Sport and our partners to provide timely resources and programming to young people and the coaches who support them in undertreated communities,” said Fred Turner, Executive Director of Beyond Sport.  

Head in the Game, a program of Beyond Sport powered by Z Zurich Foundation and Zurich North America, will employ a community-level systems change approach to destigmatize mental health issues and build knowledge and resilience among young people.

“The Head in the Game program harnesses the power of sport to deploy a system-level change approach for youth mental wellbeing in the U.S. We will leverage the transformative and destigmatizing power of sport to change attitudes and behavior toward youth mental wellbeing driving sustainable impact from the ground-up,” stated Sofyen Khalfaoui, Z Zurich Foundation Improving Mental Wellbeing Program Lead.

“Sports can have such a positive impact on youth in terms of building confidence and resilience, and this collaboration will use the power of sports to heighten awareness of and promote resources addressing mental health challenges facing our young people,” said Vince Santivasi, Head of Direct Markets and Wellbeing Executive Sponsor at Zurich North America.

As part of the grant and capacity-building pillar, Beyond Sport will provide a diverse range of youth sport providers with funds and programming targeting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. More than 2,300 athletic coaches at non-profit and elite organizations will be trained on coaching through a mental wellbeing-lens to better be able to recognize and address mental health issues among youth.

Nonprofits who meet the criteria can apply for support through May 19, 11:59pm EDT. For more information, email programs@beyondsport.org. 

Learn more about the Zurich and Beyond Sport collaboration.