TeachAids: Celebrating 10 Years
Ten years ago, TeachAids was founded with a dream of tackling the world’s most pressing health topics. We specifically wanted to focus on the hardest, worthiest problems: stigma-ridden topics and regions of the world with challenges so great that the odds were stacked against us.
For the first seven years, we were laser focused on building a methodology and helping to solve the HIV education problem. Together, we were able to accomplish the impossible; to make comprehensive HIV education available in areas where such education was most taboo, including regions where sex education was banned. Today, our HIV education products are used in 82 countries worldwide.
Three years ago, we expanded our efforts and added the new topic of comprehensive Concussion education for youth. For this new topic, we initially focused on the most vulnerable groups like the football community. We are proud to announce that our first concussion education product, launched only one year ago, CrashCourse Football, has now been adopted by the leading youth football organizations across the country!
With your support, TeachAids has established more than 400 global partners and supporters which include Ministries of Education and Health, the US Peace Corps, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the US Olympic Committee. We have more than 150 Advisors and Ambassadors including academic, political, social, and business leaders; and our products are used to help educate more than 500 million people.
HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S HAPPENED IN 2019
- Leading Medical Experts join Advisory Committee, including Dr. David Cifu (Senior Traumatic Brain Injury Specialist for U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs), Dr. Josh Bloom (Chief Medical Officer, USA Baseball), and Dr. Michael Stuart (Chair, Division of Sports Medicine, Mayo Clinic)
- Global Cultural Icons join growing army of CrashCourse Ambassadors, including Katie Ledecky (5-time Olympic Gold Medalist), Natalie Coughlin (12-time Olympic Medalist), and Julie Foudy (Olympic Gold Medalist; National Soccer Hall of Fame)
- Arkansas becomes the first state in the country to make VR-based concussion education available in every public junior high and high school
- North Carolina becomes the first state to require all Parents, Coaches, and Players in all sports to use the CrashCourse Concussion video
- USA Football provides Official Certificate of Completion for CrashCourse Football product
- TeachAids receives Stanford Community Partnership Award
- CrashCourse VR featured on Facebook’s “Oculus for Good” website launch
- Special partnership with the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System
EMBRACING OUR FUTURE: WHAT’S TO COME IN 2020
- Major partnerships formed across the US Olympic Committee’s National Sports Governing Bodies (USA Wrestling, USA Speedskating, USA Gymnastics, USA Synchro, USA Field Hockey, USA Archery— from beginning youth levels to the elite athlete)
- Nationwide launch of CrashCourse Football in Virtual Reality
- New product development, including:
- Brain Fly-through— Celebrity-narrated tour of an actual human brain (also in VR)
- Story Wall— Features personal concussion stories from 500+ young people (in addition, includes special sections for Parents and Veterans)
- Distribution of CrashCourse products for free to more than 10,000 schools reaching all major school districts in the United States
CELEBRATING OUR PAST: STORIES FROM ACROSS THE WORLD
- In Botswana, UNICEF and Ministry of Education name June 15th “TeachAids Day”
- In Dharamsala, TeachAids content educates 1000s of Tibetan refugees
- In Chile, the Ministry of Education and CESI implement TeachAids content into classrooms
- In Laos, local nonprofit educates leadership using TeachAids content
- In Jamaica, high school teacher integrates TeachAids content into classrooms
- In South Korea, the Ministry of Science and Technology funds pilot TeachAids content
- In Rwanda, thousands learn about HIV prevention while watching World Cup matches
- In Guatemala, Peace Corps and Ministry of Health use TeachAids software
- In India, TeachAids implemented into every state
- UNESCO makes TeachAids’ more than 100 unique software packages available worldwide
DEDICATING OUR SUCCESS TO TWO OF OUR CO-FOUNDERS
The past ten years of successes are dedicated to our dear friends and co-founders, Professor Clifford Nass (1958-2013) and Ashwini Doshi (1982-2017). Their brilliance gave birth to TeachAids. It is through their teachings that millions will continue to learn.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
With the success of CrashCourse Football, funded by a grant from Taube Philanthropies via the Stanford Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, we have been asked by the US Olympic Committee and dozens of National Sports Governing Bodies to build Multi-Sport Concussion content to educate Coaches, Parents and Youth across the nation.
In 2020, we hope to raise funds to start making this dream a reality. This is an ambitious undertaking and we cannot do this without additional support. Please contact us at crashcourse@teachaids.org if you have a major interest in joining with us to make all of Sport for young people significantly safer.
With heartfelt gratitude as we celebrate the past ten years, and as we look forward to an exciting and impactful future.
Happy Holidays!