Key Takeaways
- Hornets Sports & Entertainment and Thompson Child & Family Focus have announced a multi-year expanded partnership focused on youth mental health programming across North and South Carolina.
- The collaboration introduces “Hive Mind,” a sports-driven mental wellness initiative targeting coaches, teams, and young athletes.
- Nearly 1 in 5 children ages 3–17 in the U.S. has a diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder, per the CDC.
- The partnership expands Thompson’s role to include the Greensboro Swarm, extending reach into the Triad region.
- Hornets Hoops clinics and camps will integrate a structured “Mental Timeout” break, with each participant receiving a take-home Mental Fitness Playbook.
Sports as an Entry Point for Mental Health Conversations
Hornets Sports & Entertainment and Thompson Child & Family Focus are deepening a community partnership that uses basketball as a platform for youth mental wellness. The expanded multi-year agreement introduces new programming, a broader geographic footprint, and structured in-game moments designed to normalize mental health conversations among young athletes and their families.
The CDC statistic anchoring the announcement carries real weight: nearly 1 in 5 children ages 3–17 in the U.S. has a diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. Community-based, sport-integrated programs like this one represent a growing approach to closing the access gap for early intervention.
Hive Mind and the Mental Timeout Format
The centerpiece of the expanded partnership is Hive Mind, a sports-aligned program built for coaches, youth teams, and athletes. It combines basketball, storytelling, and youth engagement strategies to build emotional awareness and resilience. The program is designed to reach young people in familiar, low-barrier settings rather than clinical environments.
Inside Hornets Hoops clinics and camps, a new “Mental Timeout” will serve as a structured pause where participants reset, refocus, and reflect. Each attendee takes home a “Mental Fitness Playbook,” extending the experience beyond the gym.
Expanding into the Triad Through the Greensboro Swarm
Thompson’s partnership now includes the Greensboro Swarm, the Hornets’ NBA G-League affiliate. The extension brings the initiative into the Triad region, with a planned annual Swarm home game highlight each season. Players will wear a special-edition jersey during that game, adding a visible, community-facing component to the awareness effort.
What This Means for Youth Sports Organizations
Professional sports franchises partnering directly with mental health nonprofits to deliver programming through youth sports channels is a model worth tracking. The structure here, using clinic infrastructure, game-night visibility, and take-home resources, offers a scalable framework that regional and national youth sports operators can reference when building their own mental wellness initiatives.
As Hornets Sports & Entertainment Chief Business & Revenue Officer Mike Behan put it: “We are proud to use the power of basketball to foster dialogue, inspire action, and support the mental well-being of youth and families across our region.”
A Framework Other Leagues and Operators Will Watch
The Hornets-Thompson partnership isn’t just a sponsorship extension. It is a structured, multi-touchpoint mental health delivery system built inside existing sports programming. With pro sports organizations increasingly expected to contribute beyond the arena, this model demonstrates how a franchise can make community impact measurable and repeatable across multiple markets.
Source: Hornets Sports & Entertainment / Thompson Child & Family Focus Press Release
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