Program areas at The Hidden Opponent
Our cornerstone program, The campus captains program, allows passionate student-athletes to act as ambassadors of our mission on high school and college campuses across The world. The campus captains program brings mental health initiatives and awareness directly to these campuses. Our campus captains are an extension of The Hidden Opponent leadership team, as they work to improve culture and promote conversations at schools across The globe. In four years of The program, we have had over 2,500 individual ambassadors on over 1,000 unique campuses, in all 50 united states and various international locations. Our student-athlete ambassadors get special access to Hidden Opponent events, programming, and offers, while also gaining an incredible community of peer support. Campus captains are given mentorship, educational resources, and guidance, as they work to educate themselves further on mental health topics and create outreach initiatives on their campuses. In 2023, we grew our high school division of The campus captains program over 100%. Two of our campus captains helped enact legislation in their home states. A handful of our campus captains presented at mental health conferences, such as The nami con or The active minds conference. Countless campus captains hosted mental health awareness games, speaking events, and fundraising events. Every campus captain underwent basic mental health training by our medical director. The program also educated over 500 student-athletes in active listening, a skill meant to aid students in becoming better peer supporters. This program is free of charge to students and campuses.
The coaches & professionals program aims to provide education and resources to coaches or any adult who works with student-athletes. This program is applicable to athletic trainers, strength coaches, athletic administrators, and more. The program covers a variety of topics, helping coaches and professionals become better support systems for their athletes, while also learning how to prioritize their own mental health and self-care. This program is meant to support coaches as a professional development tool and aid in creating conversations about healthy coaching. Our program is delivered via free resources posted online each month, and supplemented by a facebook support group for any coach. We publish panel recordings to youtube for coaches to watch on their own time or use as a resource for discussion in groups. We also publish printable resources that could be posted in a locker room, left in an athletic office, or used in other ways on campus. Although not specifically targeted towards parents, many parents choose to tune in to certain applicable topics. The program is only in its second year, but viewership has increased steadily.