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Work Programme: Special Olympics

Active Norfolk/Our Impact/Work Programme: Special Olympics

The Programme

Active Norfolk is proud to be the only local active partnership in the country working directly with Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB), receiving £10,000 annually to develop inclusive opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. This pioneering collaboration brings national strategy to life at a local level, creating accessible, meaningful and fun opportunities for people to take part in sport regularly and safely.

Through this pilot, we’ve used our local knowledge and relationships to support the growth of Special Olympics Norfolk — a volunteer-led club that’s delivered six sporting pathways and reached over 120 athletes and participants across the county. Activity spans all levels of deprivation and includes 51 dedicated volunteers, many of whom take on multiple roles to keep the club thriving. By combining SOGB’s national framework with our local networks, we’ve created a powerful model for community-based inclusion in sport — one that supports not only physical activity, but also leadership, wellbeing and social connection for people who are often underrepresented in traditional sports settings.

By combining SOGB’s national framework with our local networks, we’ve created a powerful model for community-based inclusion in sport — one that supports not only physical activity, but also leadership, wellbeing and social connection for people who are often underrepresented in traditional sports settings.

Goals

Through this partnership, Active Norfolk and Special Olympics GB committed to achieving the following goals together:

1. Increased Participation: More people in Norfolk with intellectual disabilities engaging in inclusive sports and activities.

2. Improved Opportunities: Increased activity, accessibility, and meaningful opportunities for athletes and volunteers in Norfolk.

3. Enhanced Compliance and Infrastructure: Upscaled club compliance and quality assurance with accreditation standards through improved infrastructure and connected processes on a local level.

4. Strategic Integration: Special Olympics GB activities embedded into Active Norfolk’s strategic priorities, such as safeguarding, facilities, education, and health.

5. Volunteer Capacity, Capability & Engagement: Higher volunteer satisfaction with roles better aligned to their skills, alongside opportunities to attract and support new volunteers. The Special Olympics Norfolk programme did not have a sustainable delivery model with its highly stretched volunteer capacity, which this project has sought to solve.

6. Efficiency Improvements: Streamlined membership processes and integration into broader local sports structures for greater impact.

7. Best Practice Delivery Model & Sustainability: Developing a replicable and collaborative model between Special Olympics GB and Active Norfolk, with the longer term aim to enhance inclusive sports provision across England. This involves unlocking sustainable funding streams to grow and maintain the partnership.

2024-2025 Data Insights for Special Olympics

Below are some of the highlights for the impact within the past year.

Strengths & Opportunities of this Partnership:

The strengths and opportunities of this partnership are numerous, and growing with every campaign we run in collaboration with Special Olympics. We are excited to build upon these as our partnership grows further.

The benefits of this partnership were as follows:

  •  Inclusive Focus: Strong multi-stakeholder commitment to providing opportunities for people with intellectual and learning disabilities.
  • Improved Compliance and Capacity: Partnership has strengthened foundations through alignment with Special Olympics GB compliance frameworks, enhancing processes like registration, safeguarding and accreditation on a local level.
  • Person-Driven Approach: Dedicated volunteer base supported by Active Norfolk’s direct community presence, enabling meaningful local connections that weren’t previously possible.
  • Collaborative Model: Co-designed, replicable delivery model with increased scalability potential, helping Special Olympics GB adapt for growth and sustainability.
  • Strategic Integration: Alignment with priorities in sport growth, education and safeguarding ensures local relevance within broader contexts.

The opportunities of this partnership were as follows:

  •  Replication Potential: Pilot model can be scaled to other regions to increase impact.
  • Capacity Building: Collaboration increases potential impact of localised marketing, communications and workforce development.
  • Strategic Partnerships: Collaboration with professional sports bodies enhances visibility and resource access, enabling growth in new sports (e.g., Field Hockey, Table Tennis, Judo).
  • Volunteer and Athlete Pathways: Potential to develop innovative structured pathways for broader engagement across diverse groups and settings.
  • Social Impact and Sustainability: Growing focus on inclusivity in sports creates favourable conditions for advocacy, support and investment opportunities on a local and regional level.

Impact Summary

A summary of the impact the collaboration with Special Olympics has had can be found below.

  • Active Norfolk have registered new athletes, participants and volunteers through streamlined processes between Special Olympics GB National Office and local club structures during the partnership.
  • Active Norfolk have supported 2 new come and try events in 2024 to increase awareness and opportunities of inclusive sport in the region, with plans to grow this further in the next phase of the partnership.
  • Active Norfolk have engaged with multiple new stakeholders such as SportsPark in order to establish new sessions and programs for local athletes. This is a big priority to take forward in 2025 to incite growth in a new way.
  • Active Norfolk have engaged with 3 new sports during this partnership with ongoing plans to formally offer these sports as Special Olympics GB pathways in future through the next partnership phase – hockey, judo and table tennis.
  • Active Norfolk have supported an alpine skier, Annabelle, to compete at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy, March 2025.
  • Active Norfolk have engaged with and supported other programmes/clubs in the region in planning to co-host a multi-sport competition event in June 2025, and have supported athletes to engage with multiple competitions on a local and regional level throughout 2024.
  • Active Norfolk have supported the uplift of Special Olympics Norfolk accreditation and minimum operating standards completion, with 100% volunteer compliance and registration, 100% sport session compliance and clear models for club development.
  • Active Norfolk have explored new and innovative strategic touchpoints between Special Olympics GB and Active Partnership processes, including in safeguarding practice and engagement and school engagement.
  • Special Olympics Norfolk volunteers have reported huge improvements to their capacity and capability on a local level through the support provided.
  • Special Olympics GB has a more streamlined and positive relationship with Special Olympics Norfolk volunteers, with much more engagement in development opportunities and vital processes for accreditation.
  • The turnaround time for registration has significantly reduced from several months to several weeks.
  • The turnaround time for engagement and communication – from general enquiries, through to other support – has significantly reduced to 3-5 working days.
  • Key processes for support have been optimised with local support and administrative tasks such as reporting being completed by Active Norfolk. This includes website/social media support, accreditation reporting, event entry and compliance.
  • Throughout this project, all organisations have fed into developing what this model could look like moving forward and through new, replicated opportunities in other counties.

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