Project UNIFY

Special Olympics Project UNIFY® is an education-based project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education that uses the sports and education programs of Special Olympics to activate young people across the U.S in order to promote school communities where all young people are agents of change - fostering respect, dignity and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities. Special Olympics believes that through sports young people can make a difference in friendships, schools and communities. Project UNIFY® expanded from 8 to 53 schools throughout Michigan for the 2011-2012 academic year. The belief of Project UNIFY® is that young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow - but they can be leaders today in their schools, their communities, and around the world.

All Schools are involved in the Core Activities of the program which include:

Communication and Engagement: Be a Fan and Spread the word to end the word "R" word campaigns, social networking and monthly updates.
Inclusive Schools: Get Into It^TM, Partners Clubs, School Enrichment, Youth Summits, Young Athletes^TM
Inclusive Sports: Unified Sports® including Poly hockey, basketball, bocce, bowling and athletics or Unified Recreational Sports activity such as walking or exercise club or dodge ball leagues
Athlete Leadership & Self-Advocacy: Athlete Leadership Programs, Training and Education, Youth Forums

Every school involved with Project UNIFY® is reporting on what an impact Project UNIFY® is having on their students and schools. Anne Goudie, Area Director for Area 8 and Lansing Schools said, "The best part about it was how much the program is impacting our general education students and the fact that students are asking how they can become part of the project. Several schools have gone to meeting every week instead of 2X month. All have done an athletic and social experience. Cumberland reported how the program has decreased bullying school wide. Everyone had inspiring special stories to share. One of the best is that tomorrow, the Sexton High School program will be attending the Winter Ball at the Lansing Center together. For young adults in Lansing this is a pretty big formal event that the CI students never attend. The YAC from Sexton is going together. The partners have been instrumental in making sure that the CI students have the appropriate clothing, hygiene and social skills to attend."

Grand Rapids schools report that: "At Sibley Elementary, general education students have been invited into Ms. Harman's room on Wednesday afternoons since the start of the school year. The groups have focused on topics such as what autism looks like and how someone with autism might act and why. After developing a better understanding of one another, the groups have been playing games and doing crafts to work on social skills and develop friendships. As a result, students are greeting one another at school and playing together on the playground more often.
This gives students an opportunity to develop many skills including leadership and acceptance."

"Creston High School will be focused on bringing special education students together with general education students for a unified sport. The sports they have chosen are bowling and Zumba. Creston is the first school in Michigan to use Zumba as a unified sport."

"South Central High School in Bay City reports "The biggest surprise was the first time we did our sport activity together which is bowling. I was almost in tears (in a great way) to see the interaction between the students from general education and special education. They worked together so great-setting up the lanes, helping each other with their shoes, laughing and listening to stories about how they bowl. It was everything I hope was going to happen down the road and it happened the first day. It was great watching the students with special education explain to the student from the general education on the simple rules of bowling-since some of the general education students have never bowled before."

Special Olympics Project UNIFY Key Characteristics

Project UNIFY® is committed to ensuring that the following characteristics of effective practice are in place and consistently achieved in initiative schools.

Youth Leadership
School/Community Collaborations
Continuous Improvement
Communications
Professional Development
Unifying Programming
Creating and Sustaining Relationships

Project UNIFY Outcomes

The magic of Project UNIFY® is manifested in the inclusive friendships formed, seeing paired youth in action as leaders, creating communities of caring and respect.
Youth become core leaders in their school communities using Unified Sports and Spread the Word to End the Word as the catalyst for impacting change in a school climate.
Administrators and teachers take the educated risk to support the vision and insight of youth to create inclusive environments in their schools through Unified Sports and youth leadership opportunities with a clear vision of impacting school environments.
The inspiration and passion that comes from experiencing Special Olympics sports motivates young people to seek a world of unity, and then provides students with and without disabilities with the skills and opportunities to create social change.
Policymakers and education leaders develop policies and support quality practices to encourage positive school climates with safe and nurturing learning environments for all students.

Special Olympics Michigan is excited to be part of this wonderful project funded by the Department of Education. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue in the next school year. At this time we are not taking on any more schools for the full project but do have some mini grants available to new schools that would like to do an R-word campaign in the spring. Please contact Anne Rogers if your school is interested in finding out more information. SOMI.Projectunify@yahoo.com or roger2am@cmich.edu (734) 222 8283.

Project UNIFY® Michigan Schools

Category 1 Schools:
Area 26:
Al Holmes Middle School,
Bunche Elementary - Middle School
Bow Elementary
Clark Preparatory Academy
Dixon Elementary Learning Academy
Finney High School
Mann Learning Center
Perishing High School
Southeastern High School
Thurgood Marshall High School.
Area 8:
Eastern High School
Everett High School
Sexton High Schools
Otto Middle School
Area 20:
Saline High School
Pioneer High School
Area 13:
Flushing Middle School

Category 2 Schools:
Area 8:
Sheridan Road Elementary School
Kendon Elementary School
Forestview Elementary School
Cumberland Elementary School
Elmhurst Elementary Schools
Gardner Middle School
North Elementary School
Area 11:
Sibley Elementary School
Dickenson Elementary School
CA Frost Elementary School
Aberdeen Elementary School
North Park Elementary School
Parkview Elementary School
Riverside Middle School
North Rockford Middle School
Creston High School
Coit Creative Arts Academy
MLK Leadership Academy
Area 12:
East Elementary
Grandville Middle School
Area 14:
Adlai Stevenson High School
Grissom Middle School,
Area 6:
Greenville Middle School
Area 9
Bay City Central High School
Area 7:
Mt. Pleasant High School
Area 10:
Woodland
Area 20:
Slauson Middle School