Student Athletes for Educational Opportunities (SAFEO), Inc. is a Washington, D.C-based, registered non-profit organization that supports student athletes at all levels. Founded in 1990, its membership consists of student and professional athletes, coaches, officials of athletic organizations, semi-professional sports groups and other community stakeholders. SAFEO works to prepare student athletes for the rigors of college-level work and the challenges of the college experience. It also works to enhance their athletic skills; introduce them to the many available career opportunities in sports; and inform and train them in healthy living. To ensure high caliber programs and quality outcomes, SAFEO teams with many of the most respected educational systems and institutions, youth development experts, medical professionals, and youth advocacy groups. We work to build character and a consciousness for community responsibility.
SAFEO is noted for implementing a host of community–based programs including hands-on, specialized career and community awareness programs under the District of Columbia Mayor’s Summer Youth Program, the Vernon Davis Youth and Families Health and Fitness Summer Jam, the Crystal Langhorne GET WISE Girls Summer Basketball Camp, Student Athletes Against Drugs (SAADD), the I Promise Concussion Awareness Campaign, and as a Student Service Learning (SSL) provider under the Montgomery County (Maryland) Volunteer Center, among others.
Our Mission – At the core of our mission is a commitment to prepare student athletes academically for the rigors of college-level work, to work with them to enhance their athletic skills, and to equip them with important information about the college experience, including viable college options, the application process, standardize test requirements, test-taking essentials, available financial aid, time management, study skills, and student/professional responsibilities.
Our History – In 1990, as a result of the many changes to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules concerning the academic eligibility of student athletes entering college and university athletic programs, University of the District of Columbia (UDC) All-American linebacker, J. Laffeyette Carter, founded Student Athletes for Educational Opportunities (SAFEO) in an effort to set up programs to provide direct assistance to area middle and high school student athletes and their parents to enable their successful entry into and completion of college degree programs.
