Play Unified. Live Unified.
A Special Olympics Program That Changes the Way Students Show Up for Each Other
Cathleen plays unified at Pelham High School. I met her dad recently at an event for nonprofit leaders, and he told me a story that has stuck with me.
He told me about this incredible Unified Sports program that’s done so much for Cathleen on and off the court. He had no idea it was Special Olympics. He just knew it was shaping how his daughter sees her peers and advocates for them.
Special Olympics Unified Sports brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. We refer to players “partners” and “athletes” for registration purposes but when they play unified, the labels disappear. They’re all teammates.
What happens when they’re not playing is the real success.
Cathleen was home reviewing her Prom Committee spreadsheet one weekend when her dad witnessed the power of our movement. Cathleen explained to him that her student government friends had noticed 60 students were not signed up to attend the prom, and they decided to do something about it.
They called every one of the 60 students to ask why they weren’t coming, and to make sure they knew they would be missed.
Reasons varied. Some students couldn’t afford prom; solutions were found. One student, Cathleen’s teammate from Unified, wasn’t planning to go because her family worried she wouldn’t have the support she needed. Cathleen spoke with school leaders and made sure that she would.
“We’ll make it happen,” she told her teammate.
“This is a direct result of Unified,” her dad told me.
What we see in Unified is so much more than sports participation. It’s a movement of inclusion that begins when students are young and lasts a lifetime.
Through Unified Sports, leadership, and school-wide engagement, Special Olympics creates the entry point. Then we step back and let the students take it from there.
The Pelham prom was this past Friday. I keep thinking about the students who might not have gone, but did, because someone reached out and said: you will be missed.
There is a time in everyone’s life when they learn how it feels to be excluded. Today’s generation – the Unified Generation – is learning to recognize that feeling and act on it.
Special Olympics New York works with 375 Unified Champion Schools across the state. If your child participates, you might not realize it’s part of Special Olympics. And that’s okay.
The goal is not for families to know our name. It’s for students to embrace our values. It’s for us all to live unified.
Cathleen reminded me: “Unified is such a great word.”
She’s right.
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If you’re school doesn’t have Special Olympics Unified Sports, it should. Click here get started.
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