What is the Youth Activation Committee?

Special Olympics believes that young people can make a difference in their schools and communities through sports and sports-related programs. Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools is an initiative that brings youth with and without intellectual disabilities together to make a difference. Unified Champion Schools is driven and informed by the advice of youth leaders representing intermediate and secondary schools across the country. College students are often youth activation leaders as well. There used to be a National Youth Activation Committee that worked together over the course of the year to develop national strategies to promote school communities. Now the focus is on the state level. This results in young people becoming agents of change in their communities.

What is a State YAC?

A State YAC is a group of youth comprised of members with and without intellectual disabilities from across the state. This group works together throughout the year to educate, motivate, and activate youth to become agents of change in their communities and advocate for the respect, inclusion, and acceptance of all people, regardless of abilities. The State YAC uses a wide variety of tools to communicate effectively, such as e-mail, conference calls, Facebook, state summits, and state rallies. The goal of the State YAC is to reach out to other youth to help carry out social justice for all people.

Expected outcomes

  • Youth leadership that collaborates with each YAC member’s respective State office to carry out Special Olympics initiatives, events, and activities.

  • An increase in partnership between youth and adults in order to reach out to more people in order to educate, motivate, and activate them to become more involved in Special Olympics and its initiatives.

  • Involving youth in leadership to provide innovative new perspectives to ensure the continued success of Special Olympics.

  • Youth will have a better understanding of how to reach out to their peers to engage them to Be a Fan® of Special Olympics!

Typical YAC

  • 16-20 members

  • As close to equal partner-athlete ratio as possible

  • 50/50 is ideal, but we recognize that this is difficult

  • Minimum of 7 athletes and 7 partners

  • Ages 16-21 (sophomore in high school up to senior in college)