Special Olympics
Overview and Intent
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.
Participants Required/Time Commitment
You can volunteer either for a single day event, or become a coach and volunteer a few hours per week on a year-round basis. This template will describe how to sign a group up for a one-day event.
Materials Required
None
Key Tasks
Find an appropriate event to volunteer at, recruit and engage volunteers, complete the volunteer screening process your local Special Olympics office sets up, follow through with commitments to event organizers.
Steps Required
To volunteer with the Special Olympics
- Locate your state’s Special Olympics office here:
- Each state has its own system for recruiting/screening volunteers. States will follow one (or several) of the following procedures for filling their volunteer needs.
- Event specific: Find a list of events that your local Special Olympics office is holding. You may then register any number of volunteers for the event.
- Volunteer database: Your local Special Olympics office may have a database of volunteers that they will contact when they have a need for volunteers. If this is the case, contact the office directly to ask how they handle volunteer groups.
- Once you have signed up and registered for a specific event, send the information about the time, date and location to the brothers who have committed to volunteer the day before the event.
- Before the event, send a reminder to everyone who has committed to volunteer.
- On the day of the event, all you have to do is show up (unless the site coordinator has specified otherwise).
- During and after the event, make sure to take pictures!
Issues
Make sure volunteers are prepared to interact with children with special needs. If you have a brother with a family member with special needs, consider having him address volunteers before the event.
Resources
Evaluation
The Special Olympics event coordinator will have a count of participants in the event. Please keep track of the volunteers you provided and how many hours each person volunteered.