Grants Awarded Nationwide to Support Student Health and Emergency Readiness

The American Heart Association (AHA), in partnership with the National Football League (NFL), announced a round of school grants intended to bolster student health, physical activity opportunities and cardiac emergency readiness.

The awards represent a distribution from an annual $350,000 funding pool supplied by the NFL through its NFL PLAY 60 initiative.

This announcement covers 188 recipient schools across 45 states and constitutes the second grants cycle from the pool in the current year.

The program allows schools and educators to identify specific needs and request resources via grant applications that are accepted on a rolling basis.

The latest cycle specifically included support for CPR readiness programs within schools.

Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans by encouraging a minimum of 60 minutes of daily activity.

The initiative is described as rooted in scientific guidance supporting physical activity for youth.

• Funding mechanism: Grants are disbursed through the AHA’s school-based initiatives, Kids Heart Challenge™ and American Heart Challenge™.
• Targeted uses: The grants are described as supporting physical activity equipment, FLAG football programs, recess enhancements, inclusive physical education, and well-being resources.
• Program rationale: NFL PLAY 60 is a behavior-change platform aimed at increasing the amount of daily vigorous physical activity among children; it aligns with the U.S.

The source does not provide award amounts per school or describe the selection criteria in detail beyond the statement that schools identified the needs addressed by the grants.

• Geographical reach: The awards reached schools in 45 states; the source does not enumerate states or detail the urban/rural or grade-level distribution of recipient schools.
• Scale: A total of 188 individual school grants were issued in this funding cycle.

The event, scheduled for a single hour during the draft, was promoted as free and open to registrants and was supported by external partners including Damar Hamlin’s Chasing M’s foundation and a social media physician identified in the source.

The activity was framed as part of the Nation of Lifesavers™ campaign to promote Hands-Only CPR training among fans, families and communities.

• Ambassadors and engagement: The NFL PLAY 60 Ambassador Class—composed of several NFL team mascots named in the release—participates in efforts to motivate children toward increased physical activity and to support mental and physical well-being.
• Public event: In conjunction with the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, the AHA and NFL planned a public attempt to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD® for the most people completing CPR training in one hour.

children live with obesity and that an equivalent proportion meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.

These points were provided as contextual rationale for program aims.

NFL PLAY 60 is described as the NFL’s national youth health and wellness platform with a near two-decade history of promoting daily physical activity.

• Health imperative cited: The release references national prevalence and activity benchmarks, stating that approximately one in five U.S.
• Organizational framing: The AHA positions the grants within its broader mission to advance equitable health, fund research, advocate for public health and provide resources to address cardiovascular disease and stroke.

The release points readers to online portals for more information and for registration to the public CPR training event.

No phone or email contact for grants was included beyond general organizational contact details referenced by the AHA.

• Application and future cycles: Grant applications are accepted year-round, with an additional group of award recipients noted to be announced in June.
• Resources and contact points: The source lists web addresses for NFL PLAY 60 and indicates the AHA’s broader online and social media presence for program information and organizational contacts.

• The source does not provide specific award amounts per school, nor does it include aggregate spending breakdowns beyond the total annual funding pool.
• There is no detailed description of the evaluation plan, outcome measures, or independent oversight to assess program impact on student physical activity levels or cardiac emergency readiness.
• Recipient school characteristics (such as grade levels served, demographic composition, rural versus urban status, or prior access to resources) were not reported, nor were selection criteria or the total number of applications received.
• The source does not report follow-up timelines for implementation, monitoring, or reporting requirements for grant recipients.

• The grants are framed as enabling educators to obtain health-related and emergency-readiness resources that might otherwise be inaccessible; however, evidence of program reach, fidelity of implementation or measurable changes in school environments was not provided in the source.
• Questions that remain unaddressed in the text include: how grant success will be assessed, whether grantees will report outcomes publicly, the degree to which funding addresses persistent disparities in activity opportunities across communities, and how the CPR training event will translate into sustained community preparedness.

This AHA–NFL collaboration distributed 188 school grants across 45 states from a $350,000 annual NFL-funded pool, supporting physical activity and CPR readiness via the AHA’s school programs.