GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands — Special Olympics International (SOI) Senior Director Haylie Wrubel says even as the Unified Champion Schools project has reaped success in some Caribbean countries, plans are afoot to spread the implementation throughout the region.

The Unified Champion Schools, funded by the European-based Stavros Niarchos Foundation, promotes social inclusion by bringing together young people with and without intellectual disabilities for sport competition, educational and youth leadership projects, and other activities.

With oversight provided by Special Olympics Caribbean Initiative, the Unified Champions Schools was first rolled out in Jamaica in 2022, followed by Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, and Bermuda.

Wrubel, the Special Olympics senior director for global education strategy and programming, said those countries have flourished on the back of solid planning and execution.

“All their success has stemmed from good training… And the other key has been their ability to adapt programming to their local context, being able to pick sports that work within their schools, working with local partners, and engaging different parts of the government [for support],” she said after a meeting involving Caribbean programme leaders at the Lions Community Centre in Grand Cayman on Friday.

“We are working to expand Unified Champion Schools programming to all countries in the Caribbean with the idea that young people have the power to create a more inclusive world. These young people are our future business leaders, politicians, doctors, parents.

“What an amazing place our world would be if we have an entire generation of community leaders who look to include instead of exclude. Look to unite instead of divide. That is a world I want to live in, and I truly believe we are building that world through the Special Olympics,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

The global education strategist noted, however, that the support from schools at the leadership level and government involvement by way of policymaking are vital to pave the way for the unified projects to thrive.

She emphasised, too, that the heads of the Special Olympics programmes in the regional have to play their part.

“The biggest challenges are getting schools to buy in and getting government support to be able to enter schools.

“[But] it takes Special Olympics showing and proving that we are a key partner to help them to achieve their goals,” she said.

“For schools, it is important to know what their needs are. Can we support by providing sporting equipment? Can we support by providing teacher training on inclusive practices in schools?

“And with governments, we can be an implementation partner for them to take policy to practice and support them in walking the talk,” Wrubel outlined.

She pointed out that the project was fashioned so that it works even in schools which are not necessarily equipped to cater to students with intellectual disabilities. She said twinning the project across schools is the obvious solution.

“We have developed Unified Champion Schools to be flexible to fit within any educational setting. So if students with disabilities aren’t in schools with students without disabilities, we partner mainstream schools with special schools to do our programming,” Wrubel explained.

Through sport activities and competition the Special Olympics International movement aims to break down barriers that exclude people with intellectual disabilities, such as autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, from mainstream society.