Advocacy/Community Engagement
Nana and Kyoka are Special Olympics Youth Leaders from Nippon (Japan) who will lead a Youth Innovation Project creating a campus festival that will introduce elementary school children and their families to the Special Olympics community.
At this festival, Nana and Kyoka will screen an introductory video to Special Olympics and host speeches from Special Olympics athletes and Unified partners. Nana and Kyoka see their program as a way to sow the seeds of inclusion in a younger generation who will grow up to be the next group of Youth Leaders.
Over the course of six months, Nana and Kyoka will partner with local schools and seek to create nine new Unified Schools, produce 20 new Youth Leaders and engage 80 people with and without intellectual disabilities. They hope to target young children with intellectual disabilities and their families in order to highlight the support system of Special Olympics and its programming. Even when young children without intellectual disabilities attend the campus festival, they will be exposed to the idea of inclusion and grow up together to become a Unified Generation.
Over the course of six months, Nana and Kyoka will partner with local schools and seek to create nine new Unified Schools, produce 20 new Youth Leaders and engage 80 people with and without intellectual disabilities. They hope to target young children with intellectual disabilities and their families in order to highlight the support system of Special Olympics and its programming. Even when young children without intellectual disabilities attend the campus festival, they will be exposed to the idea of inclusion and grow up together to become a Unified Generation.