Special Olympics Youth Summits
Special Olympics understands the value of involving young people in the movement. They are not just the leaders of the future, they are today's leaders in their own schools and communities. To channel the energies of exemplary young people, Special Olympics conducts Youth Summits on a local, national, regional and global scale.
Special Olympics held a Youth Summit during the 2008 Special Olympics Invitational Winter Games in Boise, Idaho (25-28 February 2008). Participants in the Summit documented their experiences by writing stories about the Games. Learn more and read the Youth Summit stories. |
The purpose of a Youth Summit is to bring together up to 50 youth pairs, ranging from ages 12 to 17. Each pair is composed of one Special Olympics athlete and one partner without an intellectual disabilities who, together, serve as delegates representing their school, community, state/province or nation. Youth Summits provide a forum in which students have four important goals:
- Discuss ways that Special Olympics organizers can better meet the needs of today's athletes, volunteers, coaches and family members;
- Share their ideas and develop strategies with Special Olympics to help reverse negative, stereotypical attitudes about people with disabilities;
- Report on the athletes who compete in Special Olympics events and transmit these stories back to the participants' schools and communities; and
- Establish an action plan with measurable objectives by the end of the summit with timelines reflecting participant's involvement in Special Olympics for at least the next two years.
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The 2007 Global Youth Forum in Shanghai, China, was taped before a live audience of more than 500 school children, celebrities and volunteers at the Shanghai Media Group studios, and later broadcast to more than 1 billion people throughout China. |
Special Olympics believes that young people should be given the opportunity to make an immediate difference in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. Youth are already making a difference by volunteering with Special Olympics in a variety of ways. Whether participating in Special Olympics sports competitions as Unified Sports® teammates or simply by sitting with a student with intellectual disabilities at lunchtime, youth are changing the minds of people around the globe, and forging a more accepting, respectful, and intelligent community for the future.
This exciting program brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities to share ideas as to how Special Olympics can better meet their needs; discuss ways of reversing stereotypical attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities; report on athletes participating in Special Olympics World Games or other competitions, transmitting those stories to their respective schools electronically; and expand on the opportunities for youth to become involved in Special Olympics upon returning to their own schools.
Global Youth Summit Proceedings
Global Youth Summit Proceedings record of activities from young people around the world — who they are, what they did and the topics of discussions during the course of Special Olympics World Games. The stories gathered in these documents comprise the collected works of Youth Summit participants as they visited athletic competition venues, Symposiums, Olympic Towns and other special events to conduct interviews of athletes, coaches, family members, volunteers, notable celebrities and others. Stories were reproduced in the World Games' daily newspapers, the World Games' Web sites, the Special Olympics Web site, SO Get Into It Web site, and a number of sites connected to the participants’ Special Olympics National Programs and school newspapers.
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