GAME READY

Free Jacks has partnered with Doc Wayne to raise awareness for mental health. Doc Wayne is a non-profit organization that fuses sports with mental health. Doc Wayne’s award-winning curriculum is taught to youth all over the world to teach mental health through the lens of sport. “Showing up game ready” is used to replace the term “mindfulness” when asking youth if they are ready for the day. These valuable lessons taught through sports are why Doc Wayne has a 90% retention rate and has reached 25 countries and over 67,000 youth. Are you Game Ready for your life?

Doc Wayne uses sport-based therapy to break down the stigmas around mental health. Our direct service programs work with children and teens of all genders who have experienced trauma and, as a result, are managing a mental health need. We currently partner with 23 schools, community centers, and residential treatment centers to deliver Group Therapy, Individual Therapy, and Therapeutic Mentoring to youth. The Champions Network™ launched in July of 2020. We have hosted four types of training, educating 20+ organizations, 25 countries, multiple states, 163 adults, and indirectly reaching over 67,500 youth. Doc Wayne began in Boston, grew nationally, and now impacts youth internationally.

We all have a role in supporting mental health and well-being in our community. At the Free Jacks we are learning about and sharing resources on how to check-in on ours and our teammates, family and friends wellness and mental health.

Stay #Game Ready along side us as we raise awareness, fight stigma, encourage understanding, and fund support for an organization making an impact in our community!

Free Jacks around the world can directly support Doc Wayne and the Game Ready Campaign by following the link below:

https://givebutter.com/freejacksgameready

Pillars of #GameReady

Through sport-based therapy, we support youth and coaches on and off the field in our mission of Creating Champions®! We focus on four core pillars to ensure mental health and wellness are accessible for all to be Game Ready.

Teamwork aids Doc Wayne in being Game Ready and Creating Champions®. Teamwork is more than getting along with your teammates or an act that happens when you’re with others; teamwork helps to create and maintain healthy relationships. We teach a teamwork construct that allows us to recognize the importance of commitment, selflessness, and awareness of others. These skills are crucial for positive relationships and remain humble on and off the field.

Communication helps Doc Wayne get Game Ready and Creating Champions®. Communication makes expressing big emotions, idea sharing, and problem-solving come with ease rather than difficulty. Our communication construct creates opportunities to process and identity emotions and develops necessary positive coping skills. This is how we regulate our responses in new, intense, or unsettling situations. This is how we show up for ourselves and others to become leaders.

Resilience is essential for being Game Ready and Creating Champions®. From youth to adulthood, we never stop encountering adversity, on or off the field. We learn to persevere through the challenges to shape a work ethic that centers around positive decision-making. In the field of mental health, adversity is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! This construct moves us to be hungry for more, be self-motivated, and be hard workers. This hunger drives us when times are hard to overcome and be resilient!

Confidence is key to becoming Game Ready and Creating Champions®. Often our confidence diminishes when we experience a loss or tackle (whether in life or on the field.) We build our confidence through positive risk-taking and self-awareness. With self-care and positive self-talk, we can use sport to harness fun and reach our fullest potential. These positive mental health habits allow us to be active and independent agents of our own lives.