[EDCOE Communications, Others {R. McConkey, S. Dowling, D. Hassan & S. Menke}]
Background:
Although the promotion of social inclusion through sports has received increased attention with other disadvantaged groups, this is not the case for children and adults with intellectual disability who experience marked social isolation. The study evaluated the outcomes from one sports program with particular reference to the processes that were perceived to enhance social inclusion. Unified Sports does provide a vehicle for promoting the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities that …
The Youth Unified Sports program of Special Olympics combines players with intellectual disabilities (called athletes) and those without intellectual disabilities (called partners) of similar skill level in the same sports teams for training and competition. Alongside the development of sporting skills, the program offers athletes a platform to socialize with peers and to take part in the life of their community. *
Transcript (Auto Generated)
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yeah this is unified sports and special olympics has created uh opportunities like this to be uh inclusive on campus
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giving kids with and without
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disabilities to participate together on
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the same field this was a four team
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tournament Oakridge and ponderosa played
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last week while union mine and Eldorado
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played head to head the winners of those
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two games are here
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for the championship and unified sports
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high school champion i mean both groups
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of kids get a lot out of this the uh the
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buddies are able to
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learn about mentorship and coaching and
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they they they get to learn teaching
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skills
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while the athletes get out here and they
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get to learn sports skills and uh and
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they get to challenge themselves and
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learn how to win learn how to lose
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and overcome obstacles that will that
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will help them throughout their entire
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lives my son has been with this program
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for seven years
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and i have just seen him grow to love
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sports and get to know other kids in the
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program he gets to see other kids that
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he’s had class with before and they get
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to reconnect on the field and see each
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other again
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and
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he just loves getting out there and
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participating
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my son Owen is on the field playing but
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he does a lot of also spectating he’s
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also good for a
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hype team so he’s out on the field and
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he likes to encourage his friends
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and sometimes he even kicks the ball
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but he loves it out there he loves sport
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i’m in this program to kind of like
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get
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the other students on campus who aren’t
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normally easily involved and things like
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this help get those kids involved
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bring those people in front of the rest
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of the school population and show
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everyone that like everyone can be
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involved in all of these things
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and just i know they have a lot of fun
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doing it it was a lot of fun getting
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them all pumped up on the bus and all of
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it um i didn’t really know what i was
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getting into when i first got involved i
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had a friend from like is a big part of
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our leadership program come in and kind
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of bring me through this and i just
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ended up getting really close to gavin
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we’ve been buddies through all of the
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events that we’ve done and
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just it’s been a really enjoyable
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experience to like be involved in it
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what kind of stuff is soccer uh it’s
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probably a particular goal i was
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fighting at once
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i always join playing soccer because
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it’s the funniest week ever
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other students would place out there
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because
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it
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is a good sport to play
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i’m a part of this program because i
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just think that everyone should be
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treated equally around campus everyone
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should obviously you know have the same
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experiences and opportunities as you
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know students in campus
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[Music]
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you
- https://media.specialolympics.org/resources/sports-essentials/unified-sports/Unified-Sports-Five-Nation-Study.pdf
“Promoting social inclusion through Unified Sports for youth with intellectual disabilities: a five-nation study”