BUILDING AMERICA’S TEAMMATES
Building America’s Teammates is a nonpartisan, accessible, coach-friendly program that helps all athletes see themselves as capable and confident participants in a thriving, democratic society.
Coaches know how to grow athletes.
Let’s help coaches grow citizens.
Student-athletes are leaders, both on campus and in their communities. But what makes them ready to lead?
Coaches expect great things from them both on and off the field of play, yet most student-athletes don’t have access to any kind of training in the skills they’ll need to be active, engaged, and empowered leaders who make our nation a better place to live. What they need is a strong foundation in understanding who they are, what they care about, and how to take an active part in making a positive impact on their communities. In other words, they need to develop as both players and citizens.
“Accomplishments on the court might make headlines. But first and foremost, coaches are committed to developing and educating student-athletes. What better lesson can there be to teach our players than how to become engaged citizens.”
– Coach Craig Robinson, Executive Director, National Association of Basketball Coaches
Pilot Program
Building America’s Teammate’s pilot program will run from September-December of 2021 with participants from up to 20 teams from across the United States.The program is based on the work of Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart, co-creators of the award-winning podcast, How To Citizen With Baratunde. It reimagines citizen as a verb, based on principles of engagement we can all intentionally strengthen:
- To Participate
- To Invest in Relationships
- To Understand Power
- To Value the Collective
“This isn’t the civics class you skipped in high school.
This is about how to show up, participate, understand power,
and build a better future for the common good.”
— Baratunde Thurston, How To Citizen
Each pillar provides flexible, interactive training activities developed for and with coaches. The activities are broken into three simple parts:
- Coach Notes will give coaches an overview of the ideas and objectives for each unit.
- Chalk Talks includes a motivational video by Baratunde Thurston, followed by suggested questions coaches can use to lead a team discussion on the subject. These are designed to give coaches latitude in customizing the material to their voice and team. Each Chalk Talk is about 20 minutes long.
- Drills are activities players can complete outside of team time, individually or in small groups, providing hands-on experience with the concepts and connecting players more deeply with their campuses and broader communities. Coaches can also customize these experiences to work well with their team and campus culture.
Our Goals
Building America’s Teammates was developed to:
- Reimagine how coaches and athletes engage in civic and community activities – as an extension of their growth and contribution on the court and off.
- Provide an opportunity for coaches and athletes to build civic mindsets, dispositions, and skills through the lens of teamwork, growth, and lifelong success
- Offer coach-ready, accessible materials that provide an inspiring nonpartisan approach to engaging in civic and community discussions with student-athletes
- Help make positive civic behaviors and actions more accessible and concrete, beyond voter education and engagement
- Build a vibrant, inclusive, collaborative coaching community that supports and learns from each other as we build this new path of proactive, positive civic engagement forward.
Partners
How to Citizen with Baratunde
Baratunde Thurston, writer, activist, co-creator, and host behind “How to Citizen with Baratunde,” a multimedia, award-winning movement that reimagines “citizen” as a verb and helps reclaim our collective power. Building off of the show’s inclusive and accessible framework, Baratunde and co-creator Elizabeth Stewart are bringing their expertise, insights, and inclusive voice to create How to Citizen for Athletes as part of the Building America’s Teammates pilot.
ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan initiatives that works with a network of over 800 campuses in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2020, the ALL IN Challenge team worked closed with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to support the Coaches’ Taskforce and Pledge. Collectively providing tools and resources for Coaches’ to engage their student-athletes in the democratic process. Through the Building America’s Teammates program, the ALL IN Challenge team will support coaches in utilizes the resources to foster civic cultures on their teams.
Futures by Design, LLC
Founded by the Lisa Kay Solomon, the leading force behind the award winning Vote by Design program, Futures by Design is a futures-focused studio that creates visionary interdisciplinary, design-driven programs with diverse networks of experts, experience designers, visual designers, content strategists, and coalition builders to design and build programs that support agency, action, and impact in an increasingly uncertain and complex futures. The FBD team will work closely with coaches to design programs that engage and support their student-athletes to register and vote.
NABC and ALL IN Coaches’ Taskforce Leadership Team
The 2020 All Vote/No Play initiative inspired a revolution in how coaches engage and support their student athletes to register and vote, paving the way for new opportunities to build on the coaching/athlete relationship in service of strengthening a thriving democracy that represents and serves its citizens.
To connect with the Building America’s Teammates program consider these actions:
- Follow the hashtag #BuildingTeammates on social media to see updates, inspiration and program highlights.
- Click here to sign-up to receive periodic program updates and receive alerts for future opportunities to participate.
- Reach out to the partner organizations by emailing [email protected].
- Utilize the Building America’s Teammates Warm-up Guide.