Students with disabilities need more coaches who understand their needs.
Special Olympics has robust programming in Oakland for youth with intellectual disabilities but lacks enough volunteers knowledgeable about a sport to coach. “People are always interested in volunteering for Special Olympics, but we struggle finding sustainable, committed volunteers for multiple days and at least half of the practice,” said Amanda Young, Special Olympics Northern California health and wellness director. Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP), an adaptive sports and recreation nonprofit that offers free wheelchair basketball and sled hockey to Oakland youth, finds a lack of understanding of how to coach someone with a disability. “The challenge has been in the bureaucracy,” said Brandon Young, BORP athletic director. “Schools are responsible for education and a lot of services for kids, and busy parents feel like the school is taking care of my child’s needs, so kids with disabilities just get sidelined. The whole PE class may play volleyball but that doesn’t work for a blind child.” Young said BORP would like to partner with Oakland schools but has not consistently done so because school leaders often change. “We’ll have something good with one person and then the teacher or principal leaves, and it impacts our access,” he said. Girls are looking for more encouragement from coaches. In our youth survey, girls were more likely than boys to report that their coach almost never encouraged them to learn new skills or told everyone that they are important to the team’s success. One organization succeeding with coaching girls is Skate Like a Girl, a national skateboarding organization with a Bay Area chapter that empowers skaters to grow into strong, confident leaders. Skate Like a Girl offers an exclusive space for skaters who identify as women, trans, nonbinary and/or
gender nonconforming to build community through skateboarding. In addition to adult staff, teenagers are trained to be instructors – and sometimes retained as employees – because they understand youth voice and need community service hours for high school, said Ashley Masters, the chapter’s co-director. Masters intentionally sends emails to other youth-serving organizations looking for youth who could be a good fit to coach. Skateboarding is the fifth-most popular sport girls told us they want to try.
STATE OF PLAY OAKLAND
29
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online