Engagement Insider
NEW YORK, NY December 4, 2013 – It was high fives all around yesterday when the NFL’s Player Engagement (NFLPE) department helped kick off a major LGBT program as part of its proactive support of Diversity & Inclusion.
Called the “High Five” initiative and launched by the “You Can Play” (YCP) project, the project plans to create meaningful connections between LGBT youth and leaders within the professional sports community.
Those influencers in attendance yesterday included Troy Vincent, Senior Vice President of NFLPE, who observed, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to tell LGBT youth face-to-face that they are welcome in the world of sports, which is a perfect follow-up to our recent participation in the second-ever Diversity & Inclusion Symposium, after hosting the first one at NFL headquarters last Fall.”
Vincent’s visit, which also included fellow NFL colleagues, was a significant step for YCP and both its Executive Director Wade Davis, a former NFL player himself, as well as Patrick Burke, President and co-founder of YCP and NFL Director of Player Safety.
“We greatly appreciate the NFL taking this proactive step to participate in our ambitious project, particularly since we have worked with them for the past year on how to maximize our engagement,” stated Burke, “and this turned out to be the perfect place and time.”
The “really cool place” as articulated by Burke was the Hetrick Martin Institute (HMI), one of the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT organizations, where according to Burke, inner-city LGBT youth are provided with counseling, legal assistance, and job opportunities.
“It is really an amazing place that gives back to LGBT youth who need support and resources that a lot of people would take for granted,” observed Burke.
In other words, the perfect place for Davis, who had previously worked at HMI, to walk through with Vincent and other NFL participants, giving them the opportunity to sit with kids and get a better sense of what life is like for LGBT youth.
“We have identified initiatives like this that we think will be beneficial as we take our athletes and have them experience something new,” noted Vincent, “where NFL players will be going in to meet LGBT youth to ask them what their day-to-day life is like, what are their struggles, and what are the good and bad things they encounter.”
This also signals the start of a proactive rather than a reactive approach as NFL athletes are engaged on this issue as early as possible.
“The NFL has been great since Day One, and simply wanted to work with the right groups,” Burke added, “so what we are seeing now with YCP partnering with the NFL on this, and perhaps other initiatives that come along, is for us to provide them with resources and assistance on initiatives which would allow the NFL to give back to the LBGT community and provide them with a better understanding of what is going on with these kids.”