Program areas at SOOR
Special Olympics Oregon (soor) serves individuals with intellectual disabilities through year-round programs that provide opportunities for participants of all ages to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in an active and supportive community.due to the on-going impact of the covid-19 pandemic, Special Olympics Oregon was not able to offer in-person programming for large portions of 2020, 2021 and the first part of 2022. However, soor still found ways to engage athletes and volunteers through virtual competitions, and through the on-going expansion of soor active an on-line wellness community focusing on fitness, wellness, social hours, education, leadership, cooking, dance parties, and more. By the end of 2022, the soor active facebook group had nearly 1,500 members and is now a legacy program from our time spent during the pandemic.starting in the spring of 2022, Special Olympics Oregon was able to open up a return to sports training & offered summer season competition. Athletes and unified partners trained in athletics (track & field), bocce, golf or softball and competed at one of the 11 summer regional competitions held around the state. In total, 674 athletes + unified partners returned to competition. It was very exciting for participants, volunteers and supporters to be back together in person.in june 2022, Special Olympics Oregon sent a 40-member team Oregon delegation comprised of athletes, unified partners, coaches and staff members to participate in the 2022 Special Olympics usa games in orlando, Florida. Soor saw delegates compete in athletics, unified basketball, bocce, bowling, swimming + participate in inclusive youth leadership activities. Soor also had several family members and volunteers travel on their own to support the delegation. Soor athlete shawn hinz was invited to sing during the opening ceremony which was aired on abc and espn tv.special Olympics Oregon continued its return to in-person sports training and cometition with a full fall season in 2022 offering bowling, swimming, soccer and volleyball. 1,031 athletes + unified partners trained and participated at one of the 9 fall regional and 2 fall state competitions.special Olympics Oregon partnered with nike to offer two youth games experiences in 2022. The first was a month-long virtual program offering various curriculum and activities in the spring that engaged more than 600 students with and without intellectual disabilities across dozens of schools in Oregon. Youth games then returned to nike campus in beaverton for the first time in 3 years in october with more than 300 participants + nearly 500 volunteers for a day of sports clinics, heatlth + wellness activities, and Special events.our unified champion schools (ucs) program offers unified sports, inclusive leadership, and school-wide engagement opportunities in schools across Oregon. Ucs school programs followed the Oregon student activities association (osaa) guidelines for in-person sports participation and were able to offer a full year of in-person activities in 2022 (which accounts for end of 2021-22 school year and start of 2022-23 school year). In total, 116,076 students from 94 schools in 46 different school districts participated in soor ucs programming during that time frame.