NFLPA Announces Partnership with Active Minds, Inc.

For Immediate Release
May 28, 2015

NFL Players Association Announces Partnership With Active Minds, Inc.
NFLPA and Active Minds Commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month

The NFL Players Association is commemorating Mental Health Awareness Month by announcing a new partnership with Active Minds, Inc, a leading nonprofit organization that educates, raises awareness and empowers young people to speak out on mental health issues. As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Executive Director and Founder of Active Minds, Alison Malmon, visited the NFLPA to speak about the importance of mental health. The NFLPA and Active Minds will work together to empower young people to speak openly about mental health in an effort to educate others and encourage help-seeking.

“This is an amazing opportunity for Active Minds to further spread its stigma-fighting mission across the country,” said Founder & Executive Director of Active Minds Inc., Alison Malmon. “We are excited to be working with the NFLPA to educate even more young adults about the importance of mental health before a tragedy occurs.”

“The NFLPA is proud of this partnership with Active Minds,” said NFLPA President Eric Winston. “We know that there is a lot of stigma associated with this issue among people of all ages, and we hope that our relationship with this great organization will encourage people to speak out and get help.”

Former NFL players such as Shawn Andrews and Mike Logan have joined the Active Minds movement. Andrews spoke during the “Spring Break-the-Silence” event in 2009 which aimed to support college student’s mental health. Logan participated in the 9th National Mental Health on Campus Conference at the University of Central Florida as a panel member to speak about athletes and mental health.

The NFLPA entered into a partnership with Active Minds to create another avenue for staff members and players to speak openly about mental health. The NFLPA is proud to add this partner in the fight to ensure both the physical and mental health of current and former players.

About Active Minds, Inc.
Active Minds is the young adult voice in mental health advocacy. By supporting a rapidly growing network of hundreds of student-led chapters at high schools, colleges and universities, Active Minds empowers students to speak openly about mental health in order to educate others and encourage help-seeking. Active Minds has chapters in 45 states plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, Australia, Canada, and Ecuador. Active Minds is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington D.C. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @Active_Minds. For more information visit: www.ActiveMinds.org.

About the NFL Players Association
The National Football League Players Association is the union for professional football players in the National Football League. Established in 1956, the NFLPA has a long history of assuring proper recognition and representation of players’ interests. The NFLPA has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to assure that the rights of players are protected—including ceasing to be a union, if necessary, as it did in 1989. In 1993, the NFLPA again was officially recognized as the union representing the players, and negotiated a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL. The current CBA will govern the sport through 2020.

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