Special Olympics Athlete Leadership Programs Quick Overview of ALPs

Objectives of Workshop Why are we here today? We are here today to: Learn about Athlete Leadership Programs Review the SO Mission Have participants identify specific aspects of the mission that are important to them personally. Have participants understand how we create divisions for competition and selection of athletes to move to higher levels of competition – 2 aspects of SO that makes us different from other sports organizations. Learn about Athlete Leadership Programs and what they are designed to help you accomplish. Review the SO Mission as a guide for evaluating and promoting SO. Each participant will identify specific aspects of the mission that are important to them personally. Participants will understand how we create divisions for competition and selection of athletes to move to higher levels of competition – 2 aspects of SO that makes us different from other sports organizations. The goal of this slide is BOTH teach these topics AND start immediately to engage athlete input and preferences. ESSENTIAL: For each of these topics (ALPs, Mission, Divisioning and Advancement) to be something each athlete could explain to someone and develop personal opinion on. OPTIONAL: Ask critical evaluation questions like: What do we need to add or change about ALPs or the Mission? Do you LIKE the divisioning and selection process? IF you could change it how would you do that? Who controls these things and needs to hear your thoughts on these subjects?

Athlete Leadership Programs ESSENTIAL: It is important to note that not all ALPs roles REQUIRE training. While workshops are available, they are seldom a requirement for serving in a leadership role. Exception to that is the role of Coach or Sport Official.

Athlete Leadership Programs Definition An Athlete or Participant who serves in at least one Athlete Leadership role listed below: Athlete Leadership Examples: Athletes as Volunteers (games or events) Athletes as Coaches or Assistant Coaches Athletes as Sport Officials Athletes as Public Speakers (Global Messengers) Athletes on Boards, Committees or Input Councils Athletes assisting with Fund Raising Athletes assisting with technology or other office work Athletes serving as peer mentors or team captains Athletes attending regional or national meeting about ID This is the definition of ALPs used for the Athlete Census – which is completed by Programs each year to tell us how many athletes are serving in Leadership roles. ESSENTIAL: Introduce the fact that any time an athlete moves from the athlete role to a volunteer role helping us deliver the SO program, they are an ALPs athlete. Workshops are just to help where needed. You are not an ALPs athlete just because you came to a workshop. You are an ALPs athlete when you take on a real volunteer role like one of those listed above. OPTIONAL: What other roles might interest athletes? Are there other workshops we could/should offer?

The Mission of Special Olympics

The Mission of Special Olympics The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills, and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. This slide is designed to introduce the Mission statement and highlight the fact that we can break it down to smaller, concepts by looking at individual words and what they mean.

The Mission of Special Olympics Year-round Change the pictures (get an athlete to help you!) Different options for definitions of YEAR ROUND (i.e. different sport seasons to allow athletes to participate in several sports, or a year-round training plan for one sport.) The point here is that we do NOT want to see places offering Special Olympics for only a few weeks each year. Our athletes need to have option ALL year. Purpose of a mission is it identifies who we are and where we want to go. Ask athletes their favorite sport and ask how often they train.

The Mission of Special Olympics Sports training Recreation Vs Sports

The Mission of Special Olympics Athletic competition Ask the athletes if they would like to just train, train, train? Why do we need competition? That’s why both Training AND Competition are in the mission.

The Mission of Special Olympics Olympic-type sports Special Olympics competes and trains in Olympic type sports. What other things does Special Olympics have that are the same as the Olympics – Torch, Sportsmanship, Medals, Flags, Ceremonies, Parade of Athletes. Special Olympics has a contract with the International Olympics that we are the only organization that has the rights to use “Olympics”

The Mission of Special Olympics Children and adults (eight years old or older) Ask how many are 18 or older – how often are you called kids? A lot of people think that SO is just for kids. Athletes need to remind people that they are adults.

The Mission of Special Olympics with intellectual disabilities Insert slide with Intellectual Disabilities – People with intellectual disability – what does that mean? Learn more slowly – does that mean that you don’t learn? SO started when Mrs. Shriver had the idea that people with ID could grow and learn through sports. The First Games were held in 1968.

The Mission of Special Olympics Develop Physical Fitness Why is Physical Fitness important? What is it? World Health Organization states that everyone in the world has a right to physical fitness.

The Mission of Special Olympics Demonstrate Courage Coaches/Parents – tell me a time when an athlete demonstrated courage? Example – you’ve already shown courage today by getting up and introducing yourself…that can be very nervewracking for people.

The Mission of Special Olympics Experience Joy Tell me something about SO that is FUN!

The Mission of Special Olympics Share gifts, skills And friendship With their families

The Mission of Special Olympics VOTING Joy Courage Competition Sharing gifts, skills & Friendship… Children/Adults Physical fitness The voting exercise gives everyone in the room a chance to say which aspect of the mission is the most important to them. Give each person in the room 3 colored dots (or post it notes). Decide how you want to identify people and then give each group a different color dot. You might decide to give athletes one color and volunteers another color. You might decide to give men one color and women another color. You get to choose. When this slide comes up, instruct each person to vote for their favorite aspect of the mission by placing their dot. Once voting is complete, duplicate this slide to show results. Fill in the NUMBER text box at the end of each line to indicate the number of votes each term received. Year-round Olympic-type Sports Training Intellectual Disabilities

The Mission of Special Olympics The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills, and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. This slide is to show how all of the parts come together to create the mission statement.

What makes Special Olympics Unique?

What makes Special Olympics Unique? No charge to athletes Awards for all Advancement to higher levels of competition All ability levels Divisioning All abilities can participate in sports, can achieve, & have value All Ability Levels – Awards for all (different than Olympics because we give ribbons) Olympics ONLY give Gold, Silver, Bronze How do we set up team? Put athletes into Divisions… Kathryn does the picture exercise: athletes with softball throw. Pick who would throw the farthest. Have the length thrown written on the back and then have them “division” the athletes. If you would like to do the picture exercise contact Kathryn Clark for a set of pictures or instructions on how to collect them yourself. KDCLARK@welink.net How many weeks do athletes have to train to compete: 8 WEEKS Can male/female be in the same division – YES, if they are the same ability Can there be a range in age – YES, if same ability After exercise – explain that this is the hardest part of SO and how it differs from Olympics: not just the “top” athletes go to competition. The best in each division is given a chance. How many athletes can you have in a Division – 8 atheltes is the most (each one receives award) – fewest can have is 3.

The Stork Stand! Unique: Divisioning First go over what divisioning is and how it is decided (age, gender, ability with ability the most important). Ask how many weeks training (8) and how many should be in each division (minimum of 3, maximum of 8)   Then advise the group that they are going to be in a made up event (because they haven’t had eight weeks training) – the Stork Stand (you may use any activity that will give you different times/distances within the group). They should be in groups of two or three and one person must have a watch with a second hand. Ask each delegate to pretend to kick a ball. That is their stronger foot, and that will be in the air. They are to cross their arms, close their eyes, and stand on the weaker foot (the other should be lifted behind them). When their partner says, “Go” they are to try to stand this way, eyes closed, without moving (no wobbling!), and the partner times how many seconds they could stand this way. They write their name and time on a post-it note. When all have completed this task, they place their note on one of three pieces of flip chart paper labeled (high, middle, low) – they decide where they think they fall. Then ask for volunteers to see if they have made good “divisions”. They may move the notes around to make better divisions. There should be someone who has stood for much longer than anyone else – discuss what you can do with this single person – combine in another group, have a single person division, etc. Explain that making good divisions can be very difficult, but that games management teams do the best they can. Then ask, “If this were a local event, and now we are being invited to a national event and can have three athletes, who should go?” If no one comes up with the rule of random draw, you should tell them (and this is one of the points that makes Special Olympics unique). You then take off the first place winners in each of the divisions, put them in a hat, and draw three names. Make sure you explain this is not a real event and that they are not being chosen to attend a real games. Discuss why Special Olympics does this – our games are not just competition – they are a celebration of what people can achieve, etc. The gold medal is the same for each division – each first place winner should have an equal opportunity to attend higher level competition. Information & rules about divisioning and athlete advancement are included in the next several pages of the handbook to reinforce this exercise. There is no need to review these in detail, but let participants know that they may refer to these when they have questions about the process.

Objectives of Workshop Did we…? Learn about Athlete Leadership Programs Review the SO Mission Have participants identify specific aspects of the mission that are important to them personally. Have participants understand how we create divisions for competition and selection of athletes to move to higher levels of competition – 2 aspects of SO that makes us different from other sports organizations? Go through each bullet point, asking the athletes if they understand and have learned something about each one.

Thank you. Now get out of this classroom and start working and leading Special Olympics! We NEED you!