Special Olympics: Working First for Inclusion Everywhere

We’ve learned to look before we leap, but when it comes to inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities, it’s time to take a step back and look around to see where we’ve come. And from what we’ve seen in our partnership with Special Olympics over the years, we at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) are confident that they’re in a better place.

What makes Special Olympics so special is the element of surprise in its impact: participants don’t necessarily come to its activities expecting their mindsets to change, but in fact, when they do these activities, play and interact with each other in an environment of mutual respect, change comes. To experience inclusive sport is to see its value.

“Thanks to the Play Unified: Learn Unified program, I participated in activities with people with intellectual disabilities for the first time. I made great friends, and my way of thinking changed,” says Adja, a student at Special Olympics Senegal.

Adja, now a coach with Special Olympics Senegal, may not have gone into those activities thinking that her thinking would change in a certain way as a result, just as Special Olympics students in Greece did not go into their activities with the idea that unified play would reduce bullying among their peers. Yet, as one young participant reported, “Our attitudes toward people with disabilities at school have changed. Bullying has gone down a lot.”

At a symposium on inclusive education at a Washington, D.C., think tank this spring, Special Olympics International President Timothy Shriver argued that no matter where the event is held, we don’t have to think about inclusion before we act. Yes, there’s always more to learn, but we already have good, tested ideas that need to be put into action without delay. We couldn’t agree more.

Among these ideas is the Unified Play, Unified Learning model, which creates environments—unified schools, sports clubs, and community centers—where sport helps forge connections between people that go beyond the playing field.

National Science Foundation Play Unified: Learn Unified began supporting in 2018.By 2021, 94% of partner schools They reported that participating in the program helped reduce bullying, harassment, and abusive language in their communities. We renewed our support that same year with a grant to Global Campaign for Inclusionthrough which Special Olympics has brought unified programming to thousands of new schools and Hundreds of thousands of additional students.

Special Olympics continues to build on the successes of these efforts to give more people around the world the opportunity to experience this and the transformative power of inclusive play and learning. Last year, at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, they announced the creation of the Global Leadership Alliance for Inclusion, a collaboration of governments, businesses, philanthropies and nonprofits. Where SNF provides support Which has expanded to include 17 national governments on five continents.

Photo by JAO_VICENTE

While its reach is enormous, Special Olympics never loses sight of the individual human experiences and interactions that are at the heart of its approach. We firmly believe that young people can lead the way in bringing about positive change in norms and practices across communities and across generations, and that through participation in Special Olympics programs, they become ambassadors for the idea that a world that includes all people is a better, more fulfilling and joyful place for all.

This joy is not accidental. The Special Olympics Games are a constant reminder to us at the St. Nicosia National Foundation that while making a difference in our communities is hard work, it can also be a lot of fun. Personal and social transformation can be difficult to deal with in the abstract, but fun is not.

As students in many places return to school, we at SNF thank Special Olympics for inviting us all to take this step, join in the fun, and realize through action that inclusion is a great feeling.