FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Diana Gardner, Grassroots
EMAIL: Di***@**************ct.org
Grassroots WINS HEALTHY SCHOOLS GRANT TO LEAD RESEARCH ON HEALTH AND PE IN WASHINGTON, DC SCHOOLS
WASHINGTON, DC, December 7, 2021 – Grassroots (TGP) is honored to have been selected as the winner of the Healthy Schools Grant. The purpose of this grant, which comes with $120,000 of funding, is to increase the capacity of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in supporting schools to implement high-quality health education and P.E. in DC schools.
TGP will lead a data audit, conduct community listening sessions, and hold a series of meetings with local and national health education stakeholders. We will facilitate focus groups with school stakeholders and identify barriers and successes to achieving high-quality health education and P.E. across the DC school system. The project will result in an implementation guide that OSSE can use to better support schools in promoting health for their students.
“TGP has developed a comprehensive school health model that uses physical activity as a method for promoting adolescent mental, nutritional, and sexual health. In our decade of learning and iterating, we have become familiar with many of the complex factors that impact schools’ ability to provide high-quality health programs for their students. This project will give us the opportunity to use our existing network to convene and work alongside key stakeholders, and we are excited to be the lead agency on a project that brings people together in the spirit of generating improvements to DC’s efforts in the areas of health and P.E.,” said Tyler Spencer, TGP’s Founder and Executive Director.
ABOUT THE OFFICE OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION (OSSE)
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is the state education agency for the District of Columbia charged with raising the quality of education for all DC residents. As DC’s state education agency, OSSE works urgently and purposefully, in partnership with education and related systems, to sustain, accelerate, and deepen progress for DC students.
ABOUT Grassroots
Grassroots (TGP) is an innovative community-based health promotion organization that recruits and trains NCAA athletes to facilitate mental, nutritional, and sexual health programs in middle school P.E. classes. With our approach to re-imagining health education, schools are not only able to reach national health and physical education standards, but they are also able to provide health education in a format that students enjoy, that is community-centered, and that is led by near-peer role models.
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