Igniting the Project Unify Fire in Special Olympics Bharat

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

During the past week, the Asia Pacific Project Unify team travelled to Bareilly and New Delhi in India for Special Olympics Bharat’s Project Unify soft launch. Manager Lynn Tan shares the first hand experience of her week with youths committed to create change in their communities.

“Project Unify is now ‘official’ in the Asia Pacific region with our pilot launching in Special Olympics Bharat! On 8 May 2012, we had a successful launch on the school grounds of Bishops Conrad Senior Secondary School in Bareilly, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 250 kilometers east of the national capital New Delhi. 1,500 youth with and without intellectual disabilities participated in the launch.

This youth-led event was filled with so much positive energy! They marched in the school field with sign panels in their hands that stated “Unity” – “Empower” – “Strength”- “Grace” – “Courage”. These words were not simply words, but declarations of their commitment to drive Project Unify forward in their school community and beyond. Their commitment was further demonstrated with an enthusiastic torch run to launch the festivities.

The celebration continued with dance performances and a kite parade (Bareilly is famous in India for its colourful kites). The beautiful kites were presented to the guests of honour and students expressed their joy in being part of the movement by writing on each kite their hopes for Project Unify. One student wrote, “Project Unify is making the world equal.” Well said indeed!  The youths continued to celebrate the event with Unified bocce and basketball games. Loud cheers could be heard on the field and court as the athletes with and without disabilities played on. All smiles shown on the faces as the team mates accepted and included each other in their games.

To end the launch, the students gathered to discuss their aspirations for Project Unify in a lively Youth Summit. One that touched me most for the day: the confident young boy who took over the microphone and said, “Project Unify is not just a program, but a revolution that will bring us all to par!””

A Mother’s Day Reflection – Roots & Wings

Today we remember mothers who inspire, love, sacrifice, devote and never stop looking after us no matter our age or ability.  Glen Finland, mother of Special Olympics athlete David Finland, shares some reflections on motherhood.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and moms-to-be! 

What sort of parent doesn’t want to see their young adult take flight? After all, it’s the natural order of things.  It’s true all parenting is challenging, but watching your grown child step out into the world is one of the hardest parts of the job. Still, the stressors are different for parents of young adults with intellectual disabilities. Take my 24-year old son David, for example.

The missing part of David’s puzzle is an inability to read facial expressions and body language, a sort of emotional blindness that can leave him vulnerable to the unscrupulous types who would prey on his innocence. When David’s two big brothers made their minds up to leave the nest, my husband and I said, “Great. It’s time to go live your own lives.” But at age 24, David is still upstairs in his room, doing whatever it is he does on the computer every night.  I don’t ask because it’s none of my business. He’s a grown man now, only very different from his older brothers. So is he happy upstairs alone?  I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know I’m not easing him out the door the way we did his brothers.

Here’s the difference, when Max and Eric left home, they stepped into a broader circle of support—friends, lovers, social groups, business associates—a brand new community to prop them up as they made their way in the world.  For David, it’s not like that. When he moves out, his circle of support will shrink. He is a social loner who prefers it that way. The phone doesn’t ring for him at our house; it never has. And yet… he’s working hard at his low-wage job, saving his money for his first apartment. It could happen because it’s what he wants more than anything. And when David really wants something, he goes for it. Where does he get this confidence?

The boy runs like a deer.

And it’s easy to trace his ability to its starting point.

What began with his joining Special Olympics Track in middle school gradually blossomed into a spot on his high school’s Varsity track team. These positive experiences helped develop him into a three-time marathoner who trains year round—solo. When he runs, he says, nobody asks him questions he can’t answer. When he races, the playing field levels off and he’s just out there, a regular guy, running somewhere near the front of the pack.

So if the day comes when it’s time for him to leave, will we let him go? His father and I are his legal guardians, and Oh, God, it will be hard. But here’s the thing: a close look into David’s quiet life has given us a glimpse of the countless decent people out there who are open to the many different ways of being human. People like the volunteers at Special Olympics who know a bit about human decency.

Over time my husband and I will become only two people among the others in our son’s life. And despite our persistent efforts to help David manage it, he will be the one to determine how he will live it. He has earned the dignity of risk and the decisions he will make for himself are the ones that will see him through. Special Olympics enabled the first step of David’s journey, and when the time comes, we will let him go.

- Glen Finland is the author of  Next Stop: A Memoir of Family (Putnam, 2012)

A Summer 2012 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick

For more info: www.glenfinland.com

Haiti Update

Despite the grinding poverty of Haiti and other countries of extreme poverty, the human spirit is strong.  Together with partners, the leaders of Special Olympics Haiti are doing their part to unleash that spirit and educate and celebrate people with intellectual differences.

The information and pictures below were just sent to me from our team working on this project with a closing note, “Our team will not let up until the job is done!”

-T

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From the team:
Our Haiti work is slowly but surely starting to work. Here are our first Special Olympics/Digicel Unity Center photos. There is another building just like the one in the picture not in view. There are three rooms in each building with furniture, tables, chairs, desks and electricity. The basketball court/concrete slab is finished and  the posts are erected. There is a huge field on the other side that will eventually be a soccer field. About 60 people attended today including the new Secretary for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities. Athletes, school children, youth, board members, Digicel and the Mayor.

Previous stories on Special Olympics and Haiti:

• Special Olympics in Haiti
• Haiti: Day 1
• Day Two: Camp Shriver at Camp Haitian
• Day 2: Camp Shriver at Camp Ouanaminthe

Rise Up Revolutionaries!

Dear fellow Dignity Revolutionaries:

Stuart and Akian Chaifetz

We live in a time when any person with a story to tell can tell it.  Technology is not the message but the means for the messengers.  And our field, more than almost any other, needs messengers.

The Dignity Revolution has been stonewalled for centuries in large part because there was no way to tell the stories, no way for the walls of institutions to allow the human faces behind them to be seen, no way for the secret schemes and experiments of hospitals and laboratories to surface, no way for the voices of those with challenges to be heard or believed when abuse was rampant.

Thankfully, that’s changing as the peaceful advocates of the Dignity Revolution now rise up and speak and begin to tell the world the horror stories of abuse and neglect and ridicule that can no longer be ignored.  A few months ago, we read the heart wrenching story of the abusive treatment of Amelia Rivera and her family in Philadelphia. Our community answered the call.  Today, Amelia Rivera is back in line for a transplant.  Together we rose.

A few weeks later, I heard first hand about the denial of legislatively mandated care for people with intellectual disabilities in Panama.  When the volunteers of Special Olympics Panama saw the full extent of the neglect, they created their own clinic and opened the doors so that any person with an intellectual disability would find a doctor ready to heal.  Together we rose.

And today, I watched this video by Stu Chaifetz about teachers and adults who bullied Akian, a ten year old with autism in Cherry Hill New Jersey.  It is a tale of fear and rage, as heartbreaking as it is infuriating.  It is a call to all of us to rise up again, to demand change in Cherry Hill, to ask for an accounting from those who were abusive.   Our own young leaders in Special Olympics Project Unify will understand the horrors of this video perhaps better than anyone.  In a special way, I ask their leadership now.

First and foremost, sign the petition demanding legislative action at Change.org and then share this post with everyone you know.  But we can’t stop there. Let’s flood the switchboards in Cherry Hill, write emails to demand answers, ask your own districts what they do to ensure that this kind of abuse doesn’t go unnoticed in your schools, appeal to your boards of education to repeal any policy that protects any teacher or any adult who is abusive to children.

This is another call to action for our Dignity Revolution.  Thank goodness that the athletes and young leaders of Special Olympics are telling their stories of achievement and health and joy around the world and asking for a stop to humiliation and stigma.  If we needed reminders of why their work to educate the world about difference and their play to bring about a more accepting and joyful future is so important, we have another one today.  Watch the video and then take action.  That’s who we are and that’s what we must do.

Rise up revolutionaries!
-T

Stu’s original video

Stu’s follow up video

Stu and Akian’s story in the media:

• South Jersey News “Cherry Hill father fires new online salvo at school district“
• NBC 10 Philadelphia “Father: Son With Autism Bullied By Teacher“
• My Fox Philly “NJ Father Records Teachers Bullying His Autistic Child“

Contact info for Cherry Hill Public Schools
Web: http://www.cherryhill.k12.nj.us/
Phone: (856) 429-5600
Dr. Maureen Reusche, Superintendent, x4309
Dr. Lawyer Chapman, Assistant Supt., PreK-12, x4301
Dr. Marianne W. Gaffney, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum & Instruction, x4311
Susan Bastnagel, Public Information Officer, x4325

Mailing Address:
45 Ranoldo Terrace
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

“Not Acceptable” PSA Wins Fearless Video Award

Exciting news! “Not Acceptable,” the hard-hitting public service announcement from our “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign, was recently named a “Fearless Video” award winner as part of the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards!  The “Fearless Video” category is new this year and is sponsored by The Case Foundation.  Here is the announcement from The Case Foundation:

Ladies and gentlemen, the final votes have been counted for this year’s DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, and we’re excited to announce the winners in the Case Foundation sponsored “Fearless Video” category!

This was the first year for the Fearless Video category and the competition was tough. There were more than 1,000 video submissions, many of which showcased the very best in nonprofit video production and storytelling.

What does it mean to make a Fearless video you may ask?

Building upon the Case Foundation’s efforts to champion Fearless approaches to social challenges we sought to find organizations that used their videos to experiment and to take risks. We looked for the filmmakers who embraced a failure from their past and used it to help shape their future. We wanted to reward those who used video to share a big idea that just might inspire others to also dream big. We wanted to find filmmakers who were… Fearless.

Read the full announcement.

True Inclusion is Invisible

In the special needs community we often celebrate and highlight moments of inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.  We cheer movies or TV shows that are “brave” enough to employ an actor with intellectual disability in a starring role.  We share newspaper articles or videos that highlight when a student with Down syndrome is named Homecoming King or Queen, or scores a touchdown in a high school football game.

There is good reason for us to do all these things.  It makes the individual with special needs feel good.  It makes us feel good.  It’s fun to celebrate the accomplishments of those for which the opportunity to achieve was, and still too often is, limited by a variety of misperceptions, misunderstandings, or other obstacles.

Most often we celebrate these occurrences in the name of inclusion.  For the most part, these sorts of happenings are, or at least feel, inclusive.  Perhaps by definition they are inclusive when you consider that a person who was once not welcome in a certain societal realm now has the opportunity to be celebrated within that realm.

Yet too often I have to admit I find myself feeling as though we improperly define and celebrate inclusion.  Let me be clear, all those sorts of accomplishments I referenced are worth celebrating and recognizing.  But let me ask you, which headline sounds more “inclusive”:

“Down Syndrome Player Scores Touchdown”

or

“Joe Smith Scores Touchdown”

The first headline, is a real headline from a major news outlet. The second, I just put in a fake name.

My hypothesis is that in order for true inclusion to exist, it must be invisible.  If an event or an accomplishment is newsworthy because of a medical condition or otherwise outlying factor, it should not be celebrated as inclusion.  It can be celebrated in other ways – perseverance for the athlete who trained so hard for years to be able to run and score a touchdown, or for the opportunity two schools provided to help an individual reach their goal.

What got me thinking about all of this was a handful of pictures that came my way from this year’s annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Turns out one of the hundreds of young people participating in the roll on the White House lawn, a very highly coveted ticket, was Katelyn Herman.  Katelyn is a 10 year-old Special Olympics athlete in Virginia.  To date, her father Mike says she has enjoyed participating in bowling with their local program in Charlottesville.  So much so that her last two birthday parties were bowling parties.  He told me via email that he thinks she’ll soon expand her involvement to other sports because of the sheer joy and sense of accomplishment she feels when competing.

What struck me about seeing the pictures of Katelyn at the Easter Egg Roll was that I did not recall one story, one headline, one press release or any other sort of mention along the lines of:

“Down Syndrome Girl Participates in White House Easter Egg Roll”

The only thing that sticks in my head when I look at the pictures below is what Katelyn’s father Mike shared with me:

“She loved everything about it and everyone there treated her just like the other kids, which is very important to Katelyn because, despite her disability, she really is a very normal 10 year-old.”

That my friends, is true inclusion.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Special Olympics and Safeway Launch People with Disabilities Campaign

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last week, Special Olympics helped Safeway kick off its annual Campaign for People with Disabilities.  The event, which took place on 3 April in Pleasanton, California featured celebrity guests and Safeway executives including:

• Larree Renda, EVP & President, Safeway Health, Safeway and President, Safeway Foundation Board
• Christy Duncan-Anderson, Executive Director, The Safeway Foundation
• Avril Lavigne, Singer/songwriter and Founder, Avril Lavigne Foundation
• Rick Colett, President & CEO, Special Olympics Northern California
• Brady Lum, our very own President & COO!

Safeway is a leading employer of people with disabilities in the US and Canada and has donated more than $8M to Special Olympics Programs in North America since 2008. Safeway is also a frequent sponsor of Special Olympics State Games and hosts Cop-on-Top fundraisers.

This year, Safeway is celebrating the 26^th anniversary of its annual month-long People with Disabilities Campaign between March 30 and April 30.  This means that Safeway stores will ask shoppers to donate at check-out to support people with disabilities and will give a portion of the proceeds to Special Olympics. Safeway is also helping to raise awareness for Special Olympics through in-store broadcasts and video messages to customers and employees about how donations are put to work.

Check out the photos from the event, including the bagging contest! And for our readers in the US and Canada, don’t forget to donate to Special Olympics the next time you’re in the check-out line!