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Description
The context for the project is demonstrated by World Health Organization’s numbers: 200 million people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the world face stigma and isolation. According to the WHO, people with ID have poorer health status, lower educational access, experience barriers in daily life, mainly in accessing health care and education. Meanwhile, research shows a strong correlation between participation in organised sports and a range of positive outcomes: individuals with ID experience improved social skills, self-confidence, self-determination, and independence.
Through our project, we want to give a new opportunity to children with intellectual disabilities to overcome isolation. Over 5,200 children and youth with and without intellectual disabilities from 55 cities located in Central Europe, Southern Europe and the Balkans will participate in sports competitions that will encourage social inclusion and will help improve the cognitive, social and motor abilities in children with intellectual disabilities (ID), aged 6-12.
The project aims to encourage children with and without developmental (intellectual) disabilities to learn and play together, in this way helping those with ID in developing essential skills through activities and team games, to promote inclusion in the community and among youth without intellectual disabilities and to help family members of those with ID in regaining trust in their children’s abilities.
Over the course of 3 years we will facilitate the organisation of competitions for team sports, such as football and basketball games. The outcomes cannot be achieved without the participation of organisations from the target countries. Each organisation brings a specific set of expertise, local outreach and project delivery capabilities. The findings of the project will be shared across 52 countries in Europe/Eurasia.
Summary of project results
Through the use of Unified sports, the project aimed to reduce stigma and isolation and increase social inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) aged 6 – 12, transitioning from Special Olympics Young Athletes to Special Olympics Athlete.
From January 2021 to December 2023, Motivation Romania Foundation together with Special Olympics Romania, SO Iceland, SO Slovakia, SO Bosnia and Herzegovina, SO Montenegro, SO Lithuania, SO Europe Eurasia Foundation and Poznan University of Physical Education, worked to:
- encourage children with and without ID to learn and play together,
- help those with ID develop essential skills through activities and team games,
- promote inclusion in the community and among youth without ID, and
- help family members of those with ID in regaining trust in their children’s abilities.
In particular, by facilitating the organization of sports trainings and events in 5 SO countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia), the partners assisted 6,621 children with ID in developing critical cognitive, social and motor skills, providing opportunities for children with and without ID to learn and play together. The comprehensive research carried out in the project shows this has been a transformative initiative that helped children with ID increase happiness, improve social skills, and enhance their overall well-being.
The project provided family members in the 5 countries with opportunities to learn about health-related issues, access information, resources and support.
The SO partners worked with 421 sports coaches, providing tools to enable them to organize adapted sports trainings for children with ID and inclusive sports activities for children with and without disabilities. These tools were adapted and tested at SO Iceland and then implemented in the other 5 SO countries.
Through unified sports events, the project created opportunities for 11,370 children without ID and the larger communities to learn about ID and create more inclusive and welcoming places (schools, other support services, broader communities).
The funding enabled the SO partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia to develop much needed opportunities for inclusive sports, education of coaches and support for families of children with ID. In addition, the project helped these to build relations with 477 local organizations and implement strategies for ongoing community engagement.
Summary of bilateral results
SO Iceland was the donor country partner, acting as resource organization and carrying out Transfer of knowledge and monitoring implementation at other SO partners. The participation of SO Iceland was very important to the SO organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia, as it provided these partners ample opportunities for inspiration and learning for their own interventions.Firstly, SO Iceland adapted, piloted and tested the Developmental Sports Implementation guide for coaching SO athletes ages 6 – 12. This is an important tool that was then transferred to the five SO partners for training their own coaches on working with children with ID from the target group. After the SO partners carried out coach trainings, sports trainings and events for children, SO Iceland supported the partners through consultations and site visits, where they viewed the local programs and provided feedback. Thirdly, during the partners` visit to Iceland, the other SO members visited inclusive sports clubs and learned about the mainstreaming examples from SO Iceland. These will be inspirational seeds for the SO programs to further enhance their interventions for increasingly inclusive experiences of children with ID and their families in their respective communities.As a resource partner coordinating all the other SO partners, SOEEF took on the task of enhancing communication about the project in the SO network of organizations, as well as creating a project video to communicate to larger audiences about the improved knowledge and understanding generated by this project. The video in particular showcases the Icelandic project experience. From this facilitator role, SOEE continues to work with the partners to identify and facilitate future bilateral collaboration among the partners.