How do you grow a movement from a backyard enterprise to a global mission reaching hundreds of thousands of people each day?
Today, we discuss the ongoing 50+-year mission of the Special Olympics with Jacqueline Jodl, Senior Vice President of Global Youth & Education and Haylie Wrubel, Director of Global Unified Champion Schools.
We start our conversation by discussing the way Special Olympics is bringing together people with and without intellectual disabilities to share experiences and build a common language. Their goal: create an understanding of the value of social and academic inclusion. One of the methods by which they achieve this goal is through creating Unified Champion Schools, a worldwide network of schools with inclusive programs, both sport and academic. Together, they bring people with differences together to build friendship and create leadership.
Taking a grassroots idea to scale is never easy, but is exactly what the Special Olympics has done. Jackie and Haylie share some of the methods they’ve used to create an impact on a global level. We discover how thought leadership resides at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, and how creating that thought leadership is at the heart of their work. In addition, we learn how a focus on storytelling and sharing the real-life stories of individuals and schools can resonate with policymakers and move the needle on a global scale.
In addition, Jackie and Haylie discuss how they go about cultivating allies and ambassadors for their movement. They explain why you shouldn’t be too narrow while identifying allies, how you can co-create content, and how you can turn followers into allies and ambassadors.
This is a fascinating look at how the Special Olympics has grown, and continues to grow, across the world - creating a positive social impact for everyone.
Three Key Takeaways:
