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Special Olympics Ireland looks forward

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

WITHOUT the hard work, dedication and support of its volunteers, coaches and partners in the community, the Special Olympics movement in Ireland wouldn’t be where it is today.
That was the clear message earlier this month at the launch of the new Special Olympics Ireland Strategy 2008-2011.
Four years ago Special Olympics Ireland set out to provide more opportunities at local level for people with an intellectual disability.
They have successfully managed to achieve this but bigger challenges lie ahead and the strategy is seeking to address this over the next four years.
Currently, Special Olympics Ireland participates in 12 of the 23 Special Olympics sports. It is intended to expand the current sports programme in order to create new and exciting opportunities for athletes.
This will require the support of mainstream sporting organisations in order to successfully integrate the programme into their clubs.
Over the next four years Special Olympics Ireland aims to consolidate sports training and competition as the organisation’s primary activity, and deliver a high quality, sustainable programme built on good coaching practice and improvements to athlete health, skill and fitness levels.

There are now over 400 Special Olympics clubs, schools, centres and workshops throughout the island of Ireland, serving more than 11,000 Special Olympics athletes.
Special Olympics Ireland has vowed to continue working closely with coaches and clubs regionally to improve its existing sports programmes, as well as develop new programmes for these athletes over the next four years.
They aim to put renewed emphasis on recruiting and training coaches, using existing and new approaches to ensure there are sufficient numbers of coaches to run the programme.

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