Often times when society thinks of “valuable contributors” to issues, discussions and insights, the first image that appears in their mind is one of a well-educated and experienced adult; very rarely is that intuition one of a young person. Youth are constantly told and often led to believe that they are “the leaders of tomorrow,” but what about today? Youth are the ones in the schools, collaborating with educators, and hold the power to make a change.

The magic of Special Olympics Project UNIFY® is the belief in young people to identify challenges in schools, co-create solutions, implement these strategies and reflect on its impact.  Young people of all abilities have valuable insights and can contribute innovative ideas, but we must re-orientate our expectations of how their talent can be best utilized.

The National School Climate Center (NSCC) has worked with youth leaders, like us, from Project UNIFY and has seen our potential.  With our extensive experience and interest in areas concerning School Climate and Inclusion, the NSCC asked us to author a Practice Brief encompassing our experiences, thereby providing strategies and practices that students, educators and the whole school community can further advance.

Below are some of our favorite excerpts from this 4-page Practice Brief. We encourage you to take a deeper look – the brief can be found in conjunction with other briefs on equity and shared leadership here: http://bit.ly/YcXFnr

Inclusion is a set of best practices and shared values that meaningfully support the diversity that each person brings to the school.

Students are the ones who have the power to alter the school climate in either a negative or positive way, based upon their perception of what a school climate should feel like. Students hold the power to make it either socially acceptable or unacceptable to unite with their fellow classmates who have differences.

At the center of Inclusion is the notion that diversity is an ever-growing phenomenon that evokes a need for the community to cultivate global citizenship in today’s students.

Special Olympics athlete Taylor Stickle listens on as Raven McCombs reads her poem.

Your spirit has taught me that we are so far behind, you face challenges that don’t compare to mine.

I am in awe of all of your courage, you never seem to get discouraged.

We all often just walked on by, and never noticed the light in your eye.

You always accept us for who we are, and he is the reason we have made it this far.

It is my honor to call you a friend, a friend I’ll be there for them beginning to end.

Not another day will go by where you have to sit and wonder why.

I’ll be there for you, you’ll be there for me. Our trust is the clue and our love is the key.

The past 5 weeks, I have had the privilege to be the lead volunteer for the Red Shirt Rookies* program at Summit Elementary School in the Cherry Creek School District. I came into Summit with plans to implement a nearly identical program to that of my Unified Sports team at Heritage High School, but quickly learned that the Red Shirt Rookies program was different. In fact, all levels of Project Unify are different, and each school is unique, which is part of the reason the program is so powerful.

While at first, the large number of Rookies was hard to manage, my group of volunteers and I grew to love the program’s flexibility. No matter what activities we had the athletes and partners do, they approached it with a smile on their face. Obviously, shooting the basketball was most of the kids’ favorite part. It was my favorite too, because I saw the most improvement. Seeing the smiles on kids’ faces that could barely shoot the ball but learned to make a basket was unforgettable.

While observing the skill development was exciting, the most inspirational part of the program for me was watching the growth in the children involved. At first, it was very apparent that many of the special needs athletes were uncomfortable around the partners, and the partners weren’t too open to be friends with the athletes. However as time went on, we saw friendships develop across the boundaries simply through passing a basketball… that was incredible. By the final cheer on the last practice, it was very apparent that many of these boundaries between the Rookies had been broken down and all of the kids felt comfortable around each other. It is inspiring to see that these children will soon be our leaders, and they will be doing it together. All of my volunteers and I are excited to see the upcoming boundaries that can be broken down in the spring, when this group of amazing Red Shirt Rookies hit the soccer pitch.

*Red Shirt Rookies is an after school basketball skills program for students with and without intellectual disabilities in grades K – 5. The young students work with local volunteers to practice their basketball skills and have fun getting to know their peers.

Two weeks ago Special Olympics Project UNIFY had a meeting with the U.S. Department of Education, who has continued to support Project UNIFY for the past four years.  Each year we have a meeting with them to show what we have been doing and to demonstrate that Project UNIFY is truly making a difference across the country.  At this meeting, we had our University of Massachusetts Boston evaluation team there to present statistics from the year that provided research-based data

In addition to sharing data on Project UNIFY, three youth leaders joined us in order to give the anecdotal proof that Project UNIFY is truly making a difference in our schools and communities. Read below to meet the three youth and learn more about their topics while speaking at the Department of Education:

Clement Coulson: The opportunity Project UNIFY gave him to be a youth leader and how he takes those skills and uses them in other organizations.

Click photo to read Clement’s comments.

Rachel Ward: Her experience at the Global Youth Activation Summit, which took place a few weeks ago at the World Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, and what it meant to her to be a leader within it and also how other countries implement Project UNIFY in contrast to the United States.

Click photo to read Rachel’s comments.

Samantha Huffman: What comes from inclusive experiences in school and how Project UNIFY has not only been life changing for her, but also many other youth.

Click on photo to read Samantha’s comments.

I recently had an experience and wanted to share it with you. I was meeting with a vendor trying to put together items for our Spread the Word to End the Word campaign. This is a vendor that has been a friend to Special Olympics Illinois and tries to provide quality items at low cost pricing. He understands the concept behind our Spread the Word campaign and is helping to design a “Stomp the R-word” theme that we will be using. During our conversations he slipped and said the word “retarded”.  Before I could start the education process that instantaneously happens upon hearing that word, he caught himself, and could not be more apologetic.  We had a brief conversation about the campaign, its purpose, and exactly why the campaign was so important and then moved on with the remainder of our previous conversation.

I received this email later that evening:

Hi Jen,

It was great to see you today and I appreciate the opportunity to provide you with the products for the 2013 “Stomp the R-Word” day.  So I was feeling bad today about my slip up.  Really bad.  I wondered how often in my life I’ve made ignorant remarks and not known or even cared to wonder about the ramifications of my words.  I try to watch what I say and usually can.  Today got me thinking.  Here I am sitting in a conference room with Jen Marcello going over products that will all say STOMP the R-WORD and I said “retarded”.   I felt like such a hypocrite and I realized that I usually do an ok job of watching what I say, but a very poor job of helping others watch what they say.  That word (along with others I don’t care for) are used all the time around our office.

Well, as soon as I got back to the office I gathered everyone together and made an office rule.  Anyone who uses the words “retard, retarded”, and I named some others – will have to donate $250 to Special Olympics.  If they don’t have the money, they will volunteer a weekend and our company will donate the money.  Everyone is on board… So I’m spreading the word to end the word today.

In this day and age when so many people talk the talk, this gentleman and this company have decided to walk the walk.  The have truly “bought in” to the mission of the campaign and all we do at Special Olympics.  I share this story not to make him feel bad for his remark, but to show that what we do does make an impact on others.

Change – the initiation, closure or alteration of a mindset, strategy, action, or belief.   What does this look and feel like to you?

At the 2013 Special Olympics Global Development Summit (GDS), Rachel Ward and myself were invited to be panelists focused on the topic of, The Transformative Power of One to Effect Change.

In organizing ideas on this topic, much of my thinking circled around the question, Why are Youth with and without disabilities vital for co-creating change in the community?  While I do not imply that there are only a few select answers to this question, I delved deeper through recollecting on my experiences with Project UNIFY and the momentous impact it has had on my growth as a value-based Inclusive Leader.

Youth with and without disabilities are…

1. Developing Youth Activation Summits, strategizing and learning how to advance Social Inclusion in Schools;
2. Engaging in Unified Sports where values of sportsmanship, teamwork, and joy are mutually shared amongst all;
3. Celebrating and meaningfully incorporating the talents that each person has into the community, thus embodying the norm of Shared Leadership.

As the panel discussion progressed, our facilitator Cindy McCain asked Rachel Ward, if she was a mentor for others.  Rachel took some time to ruminate on the question and responded that that she was not sure.

Through working with Rachel the past seven-months as Global Facilitators co-designing 15-Youth Do Change the World Educational Sessions for the Global Youth Activation Summit, I have witnessed much progression on her public speaking confidence, ability to facilitate group discussions and strategic thinking in organizing engaging sessions.  Immediately, I posed how she IS a mentor for many people, especially for her friends back home in Delaware.  You could see Rachel beam with humbleness and pride for me confiding this in her.

My “ah-ha!” moment was how we can be quick to underestimate the power of partnerships. One can often think that partnership encompass two separate roles, that of: (1) A Learner and (2) A Teacher.  While these two ideals comprise the dynamics of a partnership, I advocate for us not to be fixed in only one role, but to take on both responsibilities as learners and teachers.  If we become stagnant in our position as solely a teacher, we are ousting vital components in partnerships, which are the feelings of value and genuine support for each other.

As a young person, I truly believe that we are the Leaders of Today, as we co-create CHANGE in the World – will you join us in advancing our Dignity Revolution for All!?

The following blog post is from Samantha Huffman and was written in response to a recent article about a special needs student who was bound with duct tape during school.

Samantha is a former National Youth Activation Committee member and current senior, studying Elementary Education at Hanover College.  

I recently went to a conference where a young man with cerebral palsy kept bringing up how we needed to focus on students with disabilities being tied down to chairs or restrained and/or harmed in some other way by educators.  I kept thinking to myself how this wasn’t important because this would never be allowed to happen in a school in today’s society.  I’m a senior Elementary Education major and never once in my four years of classes have we addressed the idea of restraining students because that’s just plain wrong, isn’t it?  Well, apparently I was living in some kind of dream world and this young man at the conference was living in the real world.

Today I read one of the most terrifying and saddening stories.  In Indianapolis, my hometown nonetheless, an 8-year old girl with Down syndrome came home on the bus with industrial duct tape wrapped around her shoes and socks, which went all the way to the top of her ankles.  Shaylyn, the young girl, wasn’t even able to walk off the bus by herself because it hurt too much.  After her mom carried her daughter off the bus, she immediately took her back to the school where she received help to remove the duct tape.  The process took 30 minutes and left Shaylyn with bruises all over her ankles.

School is supposed to be a place where all children go to receive an education and this education is expected to be in a safe environment.  When this safe environment is jeopardized, the entire education system begins to crumble.

How is a student supposed to reach their full learning potential when they have to worry about the possibility of being harmed by their teacher?  In Shaylyn’s case, it was something as simple as not wanting to wear shoes that caused her to be harmed.  This was doing nothing to interfere with her education, yet one of her teachers decided to not only take away her time of learning to focus on her shoes, but she also chose to restrain her.

This wasn’t just a one-time case.  Currently there are 20 states that have no school policy against restraining students.  That means, that at any given moment of the school day, those students have the possibility of being physically restrained by their teachers and there’s nothing that can be done because it isn’t against policy.  How can this be possible in today’s world?  Teachers can get fired for hitting a child, but it’s perfectly fine for them to tape a student’s shoes to their feet or tie a student to a chair?  To me, these seem equivalently harmful to students, both physically and emotionally, as being hit.

We have come so far with bullying campaigns, disability awareness, etc.  But how can we expect students to view those with disabilities as equals when there are teachers out there who still dehumanize their students with disabilities?  For every student we reach with our awareness, there is a student out there who is turned away from accepting those with disabilities as equals because they see their teacher- their role model- disrespecting and dehumanizing one.

In what world is it okay to physically restrain someone because they aren’t doing what you want them to do?  It is not okay.  These policies need to be created in order to protect all students, especially those with disabilities.  And these teachers that think it is okay need to find a new profession.  Teachers are supposed to protect their students, build their self-esteem, and show them that they matter as a person. How is a teacher doing any of these things when they physically restrain their students?  The answer is they’re not.  All they are doing is showing their students that they have no power over what happens to them.  All they are doing is showing them that they are less than human because their free will- their ability to move freely as they wish- can be taken away for something as simple as not wanting to wear shoes.

Luckily, most teachers aren’t like this.  Most teachers are extremely successful in protecting their students, building their self-esteem, and showing them that they matter as people.  They have the appropriate skills and training to manage the many behavior challenges they will experience in their classrooms.  Unfortunately, many teachers are not given adequate training, instruction, and tools that would make this kind of act of desperation against a child an aberration.

Professional development and appropriate pre-service education for teachers is critical to ensure that we don’t fail our children.

The past 10 days have been energetic, thought provoking, inspiring and amazing. These passionate youth leaders from around the world are primed to make positive change in their communities and are ready to promote acceptance, respect and dignity for all people.

As we close out the 2013 GYAS, I wanted to leave you with a few words from Sashi Montaña and Brina Maxino of the Philippines. These dynamic and effervescent young women were elected by their peers to serve as the co-chairs for the 2013 – 2015 GYAS. In this role, they’ll help guide their fellow youth leaders in activating Special Olympics around the world and help to plan for the 2015 GYAS in Los Angles, California.

“My name is Sashi Montaña, youth partner for the Global Youth Activation Summit (GYAS), and I am writing this together with Brina Maxino, Special Olympics athlete, and we are from the Philippines.

We are thrilled and very honored to be elected as the co-chairs for the next GYAS in Los Angeles, World Summer Games 2015! We are beyond grateful for this opportunity to be part of this wonderful movement. We will continue to strive to do our best always.

During the GYAS, we have learned many valuable and practical things and we have made awesome new friends from different delegations around the world who share the same mission and vision. We have created such beautiful memories together that we will never forget! It would be an understatement to say that it has been such an AMAZING summit!
We have definitely caught on the fire of Special Olympics and we want to pass it on to others as it was passed on to us. We want to lead and activate other youth like us to be agents of change.

Brina and I may not be as experienced and skilled as others may be because of their long involvement with Special Olympics, but we learned that what matters most is our hearts. We have the hearts to change the world. We believe that a difference can be made in this world if we have the love and the courage to help, be selfless, and do all that we can do. We will achieve our responsibilities with positive, motivated and changed hearts.

Many believe in us, we believe in ourselves and we believe in each other.”

Their spirit, passion and dedication is a true representation of the power and determination of our GYAS youth leaders.

Good luck to all as you head home to change the world!

Abraham Moreno and Daniel Giordani of Special Olympics Southern California were two of the lucky young people selected to play in the game. 

“My experience playing in the Unified Sports Floor Hockey Game was incredible. I am glad to be selected to play in that game at the world’s grand stage at the World Winter Games. I totally love to play floor hockey, I love it very much and I wish I could play it every single day. I was glad to play floor hockey again for the first time in two months. It was a great feeling playing it again.

The officials gave us uniforms to wear and there were four teams. I was on the blue team. We played two games. I scored two goals in the first game. We had a big lead in the first half of the game, then the other team caught up to tie the score 6-6. In the last minute, my team was able to break the tie and win the game. In the second game, it was for the championship, winner against winter. There were celebrities that played and they were pretty tall. We won the game by five and got first place.

I was glad that I was able to play in this game and I had a great time.”

- Abraham Moreno, athlete

Abraham Moreno faces off against former NBA star Sam Perkins in the Floor Hockey Unified Sports Experience

“My Unified Sports Experience was a very enjoyable one. I played floor hockey. Although we lost both games, I bonded with all of my teammates and we had a blast! I didn’t realize how much fun floor hockey could be. It was such an amazing experience meeting so many people of different races, genders and abilities. While participants in Unified Sports, all of our difference seemed to be non-existent and we were just out there having a good time and enjoying each other’s company.

Unified Sports really bring out the true meaning of Special Olympics: love, acceptance and tolerance.

It was amazing.”

- Daniel Giordani, partner

I was honored to represent Special Olympics Egypt (the land of pharos) and to be chosen to attend the Global Youth Summit. I came here to pass a message of awareness, respect and friendship to all of you and to people who still believe that we are different.

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Rahma. I am 16 years old and I have Down syndrome. I think we all know the scientific meaning of the word, it has been explained to us by people around us, maybe our doctors, our families or others who care. I am here with you now full of pride of who I am and everything I have done until now.

I truly think that the first step was my family who were brave enough to face the problem, and when you face a problem you must be true and frank to yourself.

Of course, you all want to know me. I am Rahma and I study at Alsun School for tourism and hotels year 2. I enjoy my study as it prepares me for my future work and career.

Also, I think it is very important to practice any kind of sport, I have chosen swimming to be my favorite. I practice it since I was four years old and I got my first medal at the age of 13.

I travelled to lots of different place – Syria, Lebanon and succeeded to get 4 medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and another bronze.

I am talking also to people who still believe we are different. We are not, we need only a chance and if we are given this opportunity, we will succeed.

Love, understanding, believing and willing to accept others, no matter how different they are is my message. Don’t consider us different, we are part of this society, we can help, participate and succeed.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for being here. All who helped by advice or support, let us all repeat it strongly and clearly to the whole universe – love is the answer to all the problems of the world. Love fills us with courage, to face, to struggle, to be a part of the globe.

We are still and shall continue fighting to gain our rights.

We are here and together we can.

We are here and together we can.