The NFL Alumni (NFLA) announced a partnership with Higher Education & Learning Professional Consulting, Inc. (HELP) and the Shaping Careers with Officers and Relating Experiences (SCORE) program, whose mission is to improve community and law enforcement relations by building collaborative partnerships to enhance social connectivity and increase college and career preparation for youth and young adults.

The partnership not only helps advance the NFL Alumni’s “Caring for Our Own” and “Caring for Kids” initiatives but will also seek to leverage opportunities provided by the National Football League’s Inspire Change platform and grant opportunities through the National Football League Foundation (NFL Foundation) in communities that host the NFL Alumni’s 36 regional chapters and in the home towns of the NFL Alumni’s membership.

The residents of DeKalb County, especially those with students that attend Ronald E. McNair High School, should be proud and supportive of this partnership because of the participation of the DeKalb County Police Department and McNair High School football team.

“When Dr. Tarlton met with us, presented the SCORE Program’s curriculum and let us know that we would be partnering with local Former NFL Players to not only provide youth with college and career readiness and ACT Test Prep but also engage them in conversations surrounding social justice, everyone at the table was on board,” said Assistant DeKalb County Police Chief Sonya Porter. “We are always looking for ways to bridge the gap between youth and law enforcement in a meaningful way and saw this as a fantastic opportunity. The SCORE Program allowed us to not only share our role and community policing platform but also allowed us to listen to the concerns and perceptions of youth in our community. We are excited about this partnership and hope that it leads to us being asked to grow the program in DeKalb to other schools.”

As part of the NFL Foundation’s social justice matching grants to players and Legends, HELP – a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization – received funding and teamed up with former NFL players, local law enforcement and community leaders to provide the SCORE Program to high school varsity football teams.

HELP delivered SCORE workshops to 10 high schools across 3 states (Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana) with the goal to help student-athletes reach their full academic potential, address social justice issues and build trust with local law enforcement.

“We were looking for an opportunity for our members to take part in the NFL’s Inspire Change platform in addressing social justice issues, especially in the 36 communities that we have alumni chapters”, says NFL Alumni President Bart Oates. “Through this partnership with HELP and SCORE, we feel that we have created the opportunity for the NFLA to join in the movement in a meaningful way.”

“We are excited to support the NFL’s Inspire Change platform and build out our successful program that can be modeled and provide data towards best practices,” said HELP President and CEO and SCORE Executive Director Dr. Edward L. Tarlton. “We feel that the SCORE Program addresses an important need and the lessons learned this summer and the data gathered among the students and law enforcement officers were invaluable to the development of this partnership with the NFL Alumni and frames our goals for the future.”

Partnering with NFL Alumni to bring the SCORE Program to communities across the country will allow the NFL Alumni and HELP to positively impact the landscape while giving each NFLA chapter an opportunity to cultivate sustainable relationships, increase fan affinity, foster sponsorship opportunities, impact the NFL pipeline, support ongoing youth initiatives and promote higher education and social justice as the pathway to not only play in the NFL but to also be productive citizens in the community where youth live, learn and work.

For more program information please visit www.nflalumni.org, www.helpconsulting.org, www.thescoreprogram.com.