In July, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade joined forces to launch the Social Change Fund. Its purpose? To address social and economic justice issues facing the Black community and to tear down the discriminatory barriers that far too often impede our success.
We’ve heard little about their endeavor since, but on Wednesday, they announced that as part of their commitment to supporting organizations that focus on empowering the Black community, the Social Change Fund has partnered with healthcare company Chopra Global—founded by Dr. Deepak Chopra—to offer self-care resources to teachers working in predominantly Black and Brown communities.
From a press release provided to The Root:
As part of the partnership, Chopra Global and [Social Change Fund] have teamed up with organizations that support teachers and professors in communities serving large minority populations including Teach For America, DonorsChoose and HBCU Heroes. Chopra Global will provide partner organizations with a one-year subscription to its new Meditation and Well-being App as well as additional self-care and well-being resources and programs including the wildly popular 21-Day Meditation Experiences with Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra. The Chopra Meditation and Well-Being App features a comprehensive library of simple self-care guidance and meditations for mind, body and spirit to help create and sustain a healthier life, with an emphasis on stress, energy, sleep, mood management, purpose, relationships and growth.
This is an incredibly dope idea, considering that if our teachers aren’t on point, how are they supposed to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders and catalysts for change?
“We are so excited for this partnership with Chopra Global and the Social Change Fund,” Paul said in a statement provided to The Root. “With all that is going on in the world, this is an extremely important tool for our educators to have. The importance of training the mind is a practice that is always going to be a work in progress, and equipping our teachers with this tool to assist them in that journey is imperative.”
“Teachers have the essential role of helping to shape the minds of the next generation and our future leaders, and given the challenging year we’ve had, this partnership is more important than ever,” Carmelo Anthony said in a statement to The Root. “We need to ensure we are supporting the heroes of our underserved communities and equipping them with the tools they need to prioritize their own mental and emotional health.”
In addition to education, the Social Change Fund also seeks to address criminal justice reform, expanding access to voting and civic engagement, bolstering economic equity within the Black community and increasing Black representation in leadership positions.
“Social Change Fund will end up being bigger than anything that any of us are doing on the court,” Paul said earlier this month on Anthony’s YouTube series, What’s In Your Glass?
“I mean the basketball part of it is what it is, our careers is what it is,” Anthony said. “But this Social Change Fund, this is powerful. Like this is here forever, and I want people to understand why we really decided to do that and do it with us, and we also show that we can come together, no matter what, and make change and get some shit done. That’s why I really like this. I actually love this Social Change Fund because it’s so much opportunity.”
And it’s beautiful to see them finding unconventional ways to make a difference as well.
Much respect to Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade.