Hawks' Trae Young receives February NBA Cares Community Assist award
Trae Young receives the NBA’s Community Assist Award for February.
NEW YORK – The NBA Saturday announced that Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young is the winner of the February NBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by Kaiser Permanente in recognition of ongoing efforts to normalize the conversation around mental health and promote overall well-being in Atlanta and Oklahoma. The monthly honor recognizes a player who best demonstrates the passion that the league and NBA players share for giving back to their communities.
Founded in 2019, the Trae Young Family Foundation was formed with the goal of raising awareness, resources and support around mental health issues, specifically for children and adults experiencing depression, anxiety, and PTSD as a result of cyber and social media bullying. As part of their efforts to inspire greater well-being, the Trae Young Family Foundation donated $4 million to establish and build The Young Family Athletic Center (YFAC) in his native Norman, Oklahoma, which began breaking ground in 2021. The facility will allow children to utilize the facility for recreation, education and wellness, and afford every family in Norman access to the facility and the opportunities the Young family envisions for the community through new scholarships.
In addition, Young supported the Hawks’ new partnership with Silence the Shame, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating mental health stigma, reducing health disparities and improving suicide rates among vulnerable populations. To tip off the campaign, he joined singer-songwriter Chlöe in a Teen Mental Wellness Courtside Chat with more than 1,8000 youth to discuss their experiences with mental health and provide ways to cope with stress. Young also partnered with Snapchat to aid the platform’s support of young voices on social media, particularly by addressing the need to increase support around the mental health and well-being of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. As part of their efforts, Young and the social media platform have worked with Active Minds, an organization that advocates for young people at high schools and colleges across the country, and created an in-app resource hub to provide tools for young people to address their own mental health and assist friends and family. He is also featured in Trident’s campaign around mental health awareness.
“Since my first year in the NBA I dreamed of building an organization that could help me create lasting, sustainable resources for kids in my communities,” said Young. “I hope the Young Family Athletic Center is just the beginning and that I can continue to use my platform to advocate for others.”
Young will be presented with the award on Saturday, April 2 ahead of the Hawks’ matchup against the Brooklyn Nets (7:30 ET, NBA TV). The NBA and Kaiser Permanente will donate $10,000 to the Trae Young Family Foundation as his non-profit beneficiary of choice.
