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TCA's Goal
To give student athletes a safe space to learn about mental health and to provide them with the tools to navigate their journeys as a valued individual.
What is Our Why?
The TCA team consists of former student athletes that competed at the college level. We know how important it is to have your mental health in good shape in order to perform your best in sports, but more importantly, life.
The rates of teens suffering with anxiety and depression have been increasing at an alarming rate. We've been seeing stories on social media about athletes committing suicide. We've been seeing professional athletes struggle with their mental health and making life altering decisions in the public eye.
TCA was developed to help bring these conversations to athletes in the Grand Rapids area. In society, athletes are supposed to be "strong" or "mentally tough". So most times, there is not a safe space to be vulnerable. We are here to create that space.
They say in order to find your passion, find a "pain point" in society that you want to help solve. We want to help student athletes learn how to effectively navigate through their mental health journey. We don't want to see any more athletes lose their life due to not having a community to share their feelings and learn how to cope with the challenges of life.
How Does the Program Work?
Group Mental Health Conversations
Our groups get together to learn and discuss a different mental health topic each week. Some topics that we'll cover: coping skills, social media, self-image, failure, anxiety, and depression.
Each group will be interactive, activity based, and will provide the student athletes a place to feel heard.
Mentorship
The days that we meet will be our bread and butter. But we won't stop there. We will go even deeper with the athletes individually through mentoring. We'll have weekly check-ins through calls, texts, lunch, etc.
The TCA team has competed at the college level. So we can help the student athletes through the stressful time of being recruited.
Who Do We Partner With?
High Schools
We connect with school administrators and coaches to connect us with their athletes. We work with them to learn who they would recommend for TCA. We also do team sessions.
Other Non-Profits
We love collaborating with non-profits that have a similar mission. If you're an organization that works with teens and/or athletes, connect with us!
Travel Teams
We collaborate with directors and coaches to learn more about their players and who would be a good fit for our program.
The Impact
A Program to Look Forward to
100% of our student athletes strongly enjoyed participating in TCA.
Challenging Workout Sessions
83% of our student athletes rated our workout sessions as 'highly effective'.
Successful Group Mental Health Sessions
100% of our student athletes believe that our group sessions are 'highly effective'.
A Safe Space
100% of our student athletes felt that TCA was a safe space to share their thoughts and feelings in our discussions.
The Groups Grew While They Were Together
"We all encourage each other a lot more, and we make sure we comfort each other and uplift each other and we are more aware of peoples feeling/emotions and facial expression."
"We have become so much more positive towards each other. We never forget to cheer each other on and we have become much better about comforting each other when we make mistakes."
"We talk a lot more (not a quiet gym anymore). There's more, “Good job!” or “You got it next time!"