How Jaguars' Arik Armstead is Continuing to Give Back

"Our mission is to ensure that every student, no matter their socioeconomic status, has the resources and tools they need to thrive and be successful, and we do that in a multitude of ways," Armstead told JaguarsOnSI this week. "We serve younger elementary school students through literacy programs career and college programs like our career camps and our college tours, which are also for older kids. And then we also have wellness programs where we're supporting with nutritional needs and mental health resources as well too.

"So that's awesome. That's how my wife and I have come together to kind of combine both of our platforms and knowledge, and how we're trying to have an impact long term. And you know, we've we officially started in 2019 and so we have been an organization for about five or six years, and we want to have a sustained impact for years and years to come."

What started in California when Armstead was with the San Francisco 49ers was also meant to follow him when he became a free agent for the first time. Armstead and his wife saw the change in his NFL circumstances as a way to continue to impact lives across the country, and that is exactly what has happened since Armstead joined the Jaguars and the Jacksonville community.

Armstead has been nothing short of a giant in Duval, Clay and surrounding counties since signing with the franchise. Local schools can easily spot the towering figure who plays for their hometown team, both due to his stature and the fact that he is so frequently present in the community.

"It was a conversation that my wife and I had when I left the Bay Area, that everything happens for a reason, and God is going to put our family in places and situations that we're supposed to be in," Armstead said.

"And I thought about, you know, if I had stayed and my career would have kept me in the Bay Area, you know, I'm from Sacramento, played in the Bay Area, been in California for a lot of my life. You know, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to impact thousands of other people and meet a whole new organization and a whole new city and a whole new town, and take our organization, bicoastal now and have an impact on the West Coast and on the East Coast, in Florida and all around the country. And so I, you know, we truly do believe that this has been a blessing to be around thousands of new people to have an impact on here as well."

The Armstead Academic Project has helped change countless students since it began over half a decade ago. Thanks to the never-ending life of changes that is the NFL, many of those lives have been right here in Jacksonville.

Jacksonville has become a special place in the life of the Armstead's. Parents to three children, including a son who was born in Jacksonville earlier this year, it has not taken long for Armstead and Duval to be exactly what one another needed.

"You know, when we first got here, we wanted to learn about Jacksonville more as a city, see where impact was needed, where certain families and youth that we feel that we can help improve their lives were, and we wanted to meet them where they where they're at," Armstead said.

"And so that was one of the first things we actually did here last season, was we had a luncheon where we invited community leaders other nonprofit organizations to come meet and learn about what we're doing, but also connect with them and see what they're doing here in Jacksonville to and then strategize a plan of how we could all come together to, you know, make Jacksonville a better place. And so, you know, those are, those are some of the ways that, you know, Jacksonville has been such a blessing and impactful in our lives, and we're trying to do the same thing for the community and people here."