Athlete and Volunteer Recognition Evening
19 September 2024
Unified Sports, as offered by Special Olympics Québec, is unique and unprecedented in Quebec. It creates inclusion, breaks isolation, eliminates prejudice and fights against stigmatization. It is a structuring community initiative for Quebec society. Unified Sports offers a host of opportunities for unlikely encounters that enrich the lives of Special Athletes and Unified Partners. It allows partners to meet up with and interact with a person with an intellectual disability.
Unified Sports brings people together thanks to a shared interest like sports, which bridges differences. It facilitates bonding and breaks down prejudices. Implemented as early as primary schools, Unified Sports offers an opportunity to create links at a stage of life when prejudices against people who are “different” aren’t, or are only weakly, established.
In addition to being a vehicle for social change through the unlikely meeting of people with an intellectual disability with people without an intellectual disability, Unified Sports has a decisive impact on the training of health professionals, students, elected officials, and communities. Unified Sports contributes to creating a more inclusive, humane, and open society.
Photos : Mario Walker
