Fight for Life Foundation was founded by Marlin Jackson, a former Indianapolis C**t, Super Bowl champion, graduate from the University of Michigan, a team captain, a college football All-American and a Hoosier since being drafted by the C**ts. He is also someone that has endured many adverse childhood experiences. Marlin was able to overcome the obstacles of the environment he was born into through grit, coaches who believed in him, and the life-skills that he learned through sports. He pulled himself up by the bootstraps. Coaches and the arena of sports helped Marlin realize that bootstraps even existed. At Fight for Life Foundation, Marlin and his colleagues emulate the culture that Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr built at the University of Michigan and the Culture that Bill Polian and Tony Dungy established with the Indianapolis C**ts - cultures that saved Marlin and shaped who he is today. Through sports and his coaches Marlin engaged in Social Emotional Learning. In 2009, and while playing for the C**ts, Marlin tore his ACL. During that period of recovery, he completed psychology and sociology classes at the University of Michigan. These classes sparked deeper thought about his experiences, and he felt compelled to positively influence young lives that were battling similar ACES and Social Determinants of Health Conditions that he had experienced. This motivated Marlin to develop Fight for Life’s SEL Curriculum that is named “Building Dreams.” He repurposed the lessons he learned from growing up in the housing projects, from moving from home to home, and from navigating collegiate and professional sports. Marlins vocation through Fight for Life became helping children outside of sports unlock the power of Self and Social-Awareness, Self-Management, establishing positive relationships, and being able to make responsible decisions. Fight for Life's partnerships with schools, specifically schools serving students growing up in poverty, is needed to help students realize that they also have bootstraps to pull themselves up by – that is empowerment. Discovering this empowerment leads each child to self-actualization and self-sufficiency.
