Special Olympics

Health workdespite severe need and higher health risks, people with intellectual disabilities (id) are often unable to access the quality care that they need to maintain optimal health. Special Olympics health programs proactively address the health risks and barriers that individuals with id face, creating a world where people with id have every opportunity to be healthy. 2022 saw significant growth and bounce back in global health work post-pandemic, as well as the launch of new initiatives designed to increase reach and impact. In alignment with Special Olympics goals to digitize our movement, modernizations through technology were a place of emphasis in 2022 as was aligning work with evidence-based best practices for public health. Special Olympics' health work is operationalized through four foci - prevention, assessment, training, and health systems strengthening (the p.a.t.h to health equity). In each area, Special Olympics has launched new initiatives, strengthened existing programming and resources, and established the foundation for continued growth. A young athletes mobile app was developed in 2022 and, to better meet the needs of families, a comprehensive maternal and child health intervention model was introduced.concurrently, Special Olympics developed the healthy young athletes pediatric screening, a holistic assessment that complements a child's primary care and provides an additional review of the child's health and development. Special Olympics fitness, which engages athletes in ongoing physical activity, nutrition, and hydration programming, continued to grow substantially, accelerated through a mobile app and virtual challenges. Healthy athletes in-person screenings resumed in 2022 with multiple screenings being staged at major events coupled with large games. Ongoing improvements to healthy athletes include revised, evidence-based screening protocols, across all nine disciplines, which serves to better identify risk factors of chronic conditions and facilitate appropriate referral and follow-up. A new cloud warehouse now brings together data feeds and provides Special Olympics programs with a self-service data portal to access their healthy athletes screening data. As healthy athletes events returned, training of clinical professionals and students increased too. The learning management system provided opportunities for professionals and students to be trained to provide quality care to people with id, outside of healthy athletes. Additionally, the first five interprofessional modules, inclusive health fundamentals, were developed for our virtual university. Special Olympics continued to build the case and tools for inclusion and the reputation of Special Olympics as a key partner in disability health, with health messengers playing a central role to these efforts. Included in these are participation at key conferences, contributions to reports focused on disability and health equity as well as representation by global, public health leaders at high-level Special Olympics health events. These engagements, coupled with impactful programming, were amplified by communications and media efforts which resulted in 8,000 media mentions in 2022.

Sports training and competitionthrough the power of sports, people with intellectual disabilities discover new strengths and abilities, skills and success. Our athletes find joy, confidence and fulfillmenton on the playing field and in life. They also inspire people in their communities and elsewhere to open their hearts to a wider world of human talents and potential. In 2022, the Special Olympics sport and competition team continued efforts to digitize educational resources including the conduct of a global coach webinar series, development of an on-line data sharing platform for our sport specific resource teams and the creation of an e-learning technical delegate education module. Over 4,800 individuals representing over 120 countries registered for the global coach webinar series. 39% of the attendees were from outside organizations indicating the series contributed to a broader coach recruitment effort while influencing other organizations to promote inclusion for individuals with id.in preparation for post pandemic re-activation, a new format for operating and presenting our world games competition stats, a set of sport impact standards for priority sports, was finalized. These sport impact standards will provide Special Olympics with an optimum environment to perform at their best while creating a pathway for inspiring sport story content. Additionally, through our sport partnership work, we launched a training pledge program with the badminton world federation focused on national federation training support for Special Olympics athletes attending the world games in 2023. This precedent support from an international sport federation will ensure Special Olympics athletes will receive the very best training assistance possible while further integrating individuals with intellectual disabilities into mainstream federation work at the national level. Overall, 2022 saw a decrease of total national level sport partnerships of 2.5% but higher engaged partnerships yielded a million dollar increase in annual value in kind support.special Olympics continued its efforts in developing sport partnerships as a strategic approach to sport development. Special Olympics programs received support for federations in preparation for the 2023 world games year. Special Olympics signed a new partnership with the international canoe federation, as part of the kayak competition at the berlin 2022 test games, ahead of the world games in 2023. Special Olympics confirmed new partners in 2022, with agreements being solidified at the 2023 Special Olympics world games. The 2022 sport partnership survey showed over 1,083 partnerships at the national, regional and international level. In the major games arena, Special Olympics selected bids for future world winter games in 2025 italy and 2029 switzerland. This sequential awarding of two world games was a first for the Special Olympics movement and will provide a unique opportunity to invest resources into sustainable legacy programs at the national and regional level in europe. Sport and competition work is led by a strong embrace of data driven prioritization enabling expanded services and events while building evidence-based content demonstrating how positive inclusive sport training competition can serve as a critical physical, social and emotional health intervention for individuals with an intellectual disability and their broader community.

Public education and communicationsthere are as many as 200 million people with intellectual disabilities around the world. Our goal is to reach out to every one of them-and their families as well. Special Olympics does this through a wide range of trainings, competitions, health screenings and fund-raising events. We also create opportunities for families, community members, local leaders, businesses, law enforcement, celebrities, dignitaries and others to band together to change attitudes and support athletes.by the end of 2022, 148 countries had adopted Special Olympics school programming across seven global regions, 28,834 schools reached worldwide. Approximately 1 million+ young people participate in inclusive experiences through unified champion schools that aimed at promoting social inclusion through intentionally planned and implemented activities affecting systems-wide change. Programs have developed a wide range of virtual talent shows, esports activities, digital unified sports challenges, socially distant in-person events, and virtual fitness classes. Even given the virtual nature resulting from quarantine and lockdowns, Special Olympics has been able to forge and activate an international team of youth leaders, teachers, community organizers and coaches, who are bringing the power of social inclusion to schools and communities around the world. Further, we've increased audience interaction to grow the movement by attracting new stakeholders to our mission. While primarily remote, our communications and efforts have led to reaching new consumers and policymakers through coordinated efforts to elevate Special Olympics as a global thought leader within inclusion and education. Most notably, Special Olympics launched the global center for inclusion in education in abu dhabi, which focuses on the intersection of policy, practice and research. The global center publishes research and policy briefs that illuminate our work on inclusion in education, along with case studies showcasing the exemplary work of Special Olympics staff, coaches, volunteers, athletes, and youth.