What is Community Based Programming?
Each Local Program needs to determine the structure that best fits its needs, so it may provide a high-quality comprehensive Special Olympics experience for our athletes and their families.
With that being said, after much discussion with our stakeholders (athletes, families and volunteers), our recommended structure is a comprehensive Local Program that provides Special Olympics opportunities for athletes in a geographic area for their lifetime. Our Leadership model supports this transition. An example may be Dover – there would be one LP for Dover (or greater Dover if appropriate). In addition to traditional Special Olympics activities, the Dover Special Olympics Local Program would:
- Offer Young Athletes® to meet the needs of kids with and without intellectual disabilities from two to seven and a half.
- Through the schools, offer Unified Champion Schools programming which includes:
- Unified Champion Middle Schools
- Unified Champion High Schools
- Outside of the school year or after school, an athlete would have an opportunity to select from one of multiple sports offered each season within the offerings of the Local Program.
This structure allows the Special Olympics Local Program to support an athlete through his/her lifetime!