April 3, 2009

The name of the group is as simple as its definition. The goal of that group, however, is something that has a much deeper meaning. When Tyler Spencer arrived at Georgetown as a student in the fall, he was excited about the rowing season and another year of school. Inside of him, however, were ideas of organizing a group of student-athletes at Georgetown who would help to build a community-outreach program that could touch the lives of middle school-aged kids across Washington, D.C.

It was an idea that Spencer had ever since he worked in Africa as part of Grassroot Soccer, an international organization that uses soccer as a platform to provide African youth with the knowledge, skills and support to live HIV free. Spencer has started Grassroot Hoyas, a community-based group that attempts to do the same things that Grassroot Soccer does, but to reach out to kids in Southeast D.C through all sports.

"I was lucky to have the experience of going to Africa at such a young age," Spencer said. "For me, it was a life-changing thing, and through it I found a way to use my love for sports to get involved in this major social issue that affects so many people in Africa."

Upon returning to D.C., Spencer volunteered to create an AIDS fact sheet for Metro Teen AIDS, the only HIV prevention non-profit in the area that specifically targets youth. Through this experience, he learned how severe the epidemic is in D.C.. According to the 2008 Department of Health Report, 1 in 20 adults in D.C. is HIV positive, 11 times the national average. Shannon L. Hader, director of the District's HIV/AIDS Administration, claimed that our rates are higher than some areas of Africa. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya," she said in a recent Washington Post headliner. More importantly, the epidemic is getting worse and worse for young people, those between the ages of 14 and 24. Spencer said he could no longer stomach the reality that HIV/AIDS statistic in one of the most powerful cities in the world were on par with statistics from some of the most underdeveloped and unstable countries in the world.

"Part of me was also saying that Grassroot Soccer is this American NPO (non-profit organization) that does a lot of great work in Africa," Spencer said, "but why can't Americans do this work in America, especially when there is such a great need?" Driven even more to develop something at his school, Spencer sat down one night in Lauinger Library and typed up a three-page proposal for Grassroot Hoyas.

In addition to wanting to translate the model he implemented in Africa to work in an American context and benefit D.C. youth, he also had a goal to benefit the athletes involved. "I wanted college athletes to have the experience that I had, to be able to use their sports to do something bigger than themselves and their teams, for Grassroot Hoyas to empower them beyond the field," Spencer said. "As Division I athletes we have major demands on our time. A lot of athletes never get the chance to study abroad or do long-term service work...not because we don't want to, but because it's hard to find a program out there that fits with our training schedules." Through Grassroot Hoyas, athletes are able to use a medium (sports) that they care about to reach kids in a powerful way, right in our backyard. Whether they end up going pro or to business, law, or med school, the hope is that by being a coach in the program they will become more conscious of public health, education, and other social issues.

There are three immediate goals for Grassroot Hoyas: