Special Olympics Inc

Public education and communicationsat the end of 2024, 152 countries had adopted special olympics school programming across seven global regions, with 41 countries receiving direct grant-funded support from special olympics headquarters. This funding was thanks to the backing of significant contributors such as the stavros niarchos foundation (snf) and his highness sheikh mohammed bin zayed al nahyan, president of the u.a.e., ruler of abu dhabi, supreme commander of the u.a.e. Armed forces (mbz)in 2024, special olympics trained 33 new country programs to implement the unified champion schools (ucs) model through the excellence in action events, led by the regional hubs of excellence (special olympics argentina, special olympics bharat, special olympics pakistan, special olympics egypt, special olympics rwanda, and special olympics romania). At these events, the hubs shared best practices and trained the new programs on key topics essential for implementing the ucs model.within the united states, unified champion schools (ucs) marked a milestone year in 2024, entering its 17th year of partnership with the office of special education programs at the u.s. Department of education. The movement achieved a major benchmark, surpassing its national target of 10,000 schools engaged across all levels of education from pre-k to college, demonstrating the growing demand for inclusive school cultures. Globally, ucs experienced significant expansion, growing from 17 to 25 special olympics programs, further embedding the model of inclusive youth leadership, unified sports, and whole-school engagement into education systems worldwide. This growth underscores the transformative power of ucs to shift school climates, empower students with and without intellectual disabilities, and establish inclusion as a standard practice rather than an exception.in 2024, the special olympics global youth & education team advanced global youth leadership and unified champion schools worldwide. With support from the u.s. Department of state, unified youth exchanges were implemented in mexico, peru, north carolina, washington, d.c., jamaica, connecticut, and panama, creating opportunities for youth with and without intellectual disabilities to connect across cultures, share best practices, and strengthen leadership skills.a global virtual youth & educators summit reached more than 1,000 participants worldwide and deepened collaboration between youth leaders and educators on special olympics programming. Regionally, a youth leadership summit in china convened youth and athlete leadership councils from across east asia to strengthen skills and promote inclusion.a key milestone in february 2024 was the onboarding of the 2023-2025 global youth leadership council (gylc), a cohort of unified youth leaders beginning a two-year term guiding special olympics' global youth programming. In addition, the youth innovation initiative funded 77 youth-led projects across all seven regions, empowering young leaders to design and implement community- and school-based projects with measurable impact. Special olympics is a global thought leader within inclusion and education. The special olympics global center for inclusion in education was founded in 2019 by a generous gift from his highness sheikh mohammed bin zayed al nahyan, president of the u.a.e., and serves as a platform of best practices for unified champion schools. In its third year, the research collaborative developed a set of key research principles, parameters, and themes that serve as the foundation for publishing and executing a consensus research agenda to advance research, practice, and policy related to inclusion in sport and education contexts. The center continued two important partnerships with renowned research institutions. In collaboration with the easel lab at the harvard graduate school of education, special olympics developed a framework for inclusive mindsets and behaviors (imb) and several important resources for developing next-generation programming, including a theory of change, research brief, draft measurement tool, case study vignettes, and easy-read one-pagers. In 2024, northwestern university began compiling the results of a three-year evaluation of unified champion schools (ucs) conducted across six countries. The study, which included pre- and post-surveys as well as focus groups with educators, students, and families, found positive impacts on social and emotional well-being, stronger perceptions of social inclusion, and improvements in school climate and safety. These findings reinforce the effectiveness of the ucs model in advancing inclusive education and supportive learning environments worldwide. In 2024, the global center for inclusion in education advanced its mission through a series of high-impact convenings and partnerships. The year began with a joint panel discussion with the brookings institution, spotlighting the global imperative for inclusive education. In october, the center co-hosted a two-day event at the nyu abu dhabi institute, inclusive futures: exploring research innovations and ai tools for children with disabilities (october 10-11), which brought together researchers, educators, and technology experts to examine how emerging tools can expand access and opportunity. The centerpiece of the year's work was the global summit, held in november 2024, which gathered more than 300 educators, government officials, professionals, and youth voices under the theme inclusion for tomorrow. This landmark gathering provided a platform for shared learning, cross-sector dialogue, and concrete action commitments, further positioning the global center as a catalyst for advancing inclusive education worldwide.in january 2024, special olympics issued its first annual global state of inclusion in education letter in recognition of the international day of education. The letter, authored by dr. Timothy shriver, chairman of special olympics, reviewed global progress and challenges in advancing inclusive education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (idd). The publication highlights successes in policy and practice, identifies continuing barriers to inclusion, and reinforces special olympics' leadership role in promoting educational equity worldwide. The full letter is available to the public on the organization's website.

Sports training and competitionduring 2024, special olympics geared up to host the special olympics world winter games in turin, italy, which was held in q1 of 2025. The movement's sport partnership work offered unprecedented support and involvement from international sport federations at the world winter games. Many of the movement's sport federation partners assisted with the recruitment of technical officials, storytelling, and facilitating connections between national federations and local special olympics programs to support the training and preparation for the world winter games. Special olympics continued its efforts in developing sport partnerships, as well as a sport-specific approach to sport development. Global strategic development plans were created for the sports of football, swimming, and golf. Special olympics continued its work in sport partnerships, developing stronger relationships with many of its international sport federation partners, and creating additional opportunities for special olympics athletes to compete in mainstream sporting events. In 2024, the sport partnership survey showed over 1,260 partnerships at the national, regional, and international level, worth over usd $7.39 million in value-in-kind across the global special olympics movement.e-learning 10,494 coach certifications were completed on the online learning portal in 2024. Special olympics transitioned to a new online learning portal (docebo) in september 2024gallagher coach development initiatives - coaching system development grants - so africa: in 2024, special olympics africa's primary focus was capacity building within the four grant markets previously supported (special olympics kenya, special olympics nigeria, special olympics south africa, and special olympics ghana) - coach developer training: special olympics africa conducted a regional coach developer training with 19 coach developers attending from special olympics kenya, special olympics nigeria, and special olympics ghana. Coaches completed special olympics africa's comprehensive master coach (coach developer) training, which included the core principles of special olympics, coaching athletes with idd, and competition planning. All coach developers completed and passed special olympics africa's assessment, including 3 staff members with idd, who will now support further coach education within the region. - grants: kenya, nigeria, south africa, ghana, zambia - due to significant staffing changes, the special olympics africa grants were issued in early 2025 - special olympics asia pacific: - grants: due to delays in fund allocation and grant application processes, special olympics malaysia, nippon, pakistan, and thailand grants were finalized in q3 of 2024. Below is a summary of the grant metrics by the end of 2024, and alongside, the totals as of their final grant reports in q3 2025. Year 2 grant applications are underway for special olympics malaysia, pakistan, thailand, and with the introduction of indonesia. Since special olympics nippon has been successful in securing additional funding, they are now exiting this grant stream. - grant term for 4 x special olympics asia pacific programmes concluded in july 2025. - grant term for special olympics asia pacific programmes commenced in february 2025.2024 coach webinar series (cws) - presented by gallagher - 2 webinars and 4 sport specific workshops, eight languages, 6 athlete leader hosts from 6 regions - highest live attendance- teaching and learning in special olympics (571) - 6,098 registrations representing 1,863 unique coaches from 148 countries - 959 individuals from 123 countries attended, and those unable to attend received links to the recordings - 23% of attendees were coaches outside of special olympics - 84 social medial posts; 301,500 impressions women in sport webinar series (wis) - sponsored by aerie - 2 webinars 8 languages, 2 athlete leader hosts from 2 regions - the women in sport webinar series, presented by aerie, was launched on international women's day to shine a light on the experiences and insights of inspirational women in sports. - featuring diverse female leaders from within and outside the special olympics community, the opening webinar attracted over 250 attendees from more than 60 countries.youth sport coachingwith the support of gallagher & espn, we commenced an exciting piece of work with icoachkids and leeds beckett university in the uk. As part of this work, we are conducting a landscape analysis of youth sport in special olympics - involving surveying youth sport coaches, youth sport athletes, their parents/caregivers, and youth sport organizers. Their input will help to inform the research team's development of a suite of resources specifically designed to support the coaches of youth athletes with idd. Based around the core tenets of the icoachkids golden principles, these resources will support youth sport coaches in special olympics to plan and deliver fun, engaging, developmentally appropriate sports experiences for youth athletes in special olympics, as well as to provide them with guidance and good practices to support the effective and appropriate use of competition as a development tool. Michael phelps foundation project overviewthe michael phelps foundation supported seven swimming grants in two regions and seven special olympics programs in 2024. These grants supported swim coaches from six different programs in latin america as they worked to implement what they had learned at a regional michael phelps foundation swim coach training on the local level in their own communities, as well as funding another swim coach training in dublin, ireland. Through this model, coaches in latin america spread their knowledge to others in their area, and in 2025, the same process will allow european coaches who attended the training in dublin to do the same. - 6 local special olympics programs grants to train local coaches & swimmers (bolivia, chile, guatemala, paraguay, peru, puerto rico) - 258 so coaches certified - 53 so coaches recertified - hosted by special olympics ireland, the michael phelps foundation delivered an im champion coach training to special olympics swimming coaches from across the special olympics europe eurasia region, specifically from seven local special olympics programs (ireland, italy, germany, slovenia, israel, luxembourg, estonia). Each participating programme had the opportunity to apply for grant funding to support the roll-out of the michael phelps foundation im program training in 2025.sport assistants with idd pilot level 1 sport assistant materials were adapted in collaboration with the athlete leadership team for a modified delivery format for coaches with idd. These materials were launched and made available in 2024 as part of the the athlete leadership programme's leadership and skills curriculum. This was launched in late 2024. Unified sports developmentin 2024, espn, lions clubs international, and toyota motor company supported a total of 85 unified sports grants with programming across six special olympics regions and 47 special olympics programs. All focused on the development of unified sports, supporting the growth of opportunities both in schools and community settings, including league-play, and the development of new sports. Programs partnered with community organizations like lions clubs, ymcas, boys & girls clubs, and local parks & recreation departments to offer new unified sports opportunities in their states.