Special Olympics

Role Description The Athlete Leadership and Unified Leadership consultancy is a 12-month consulting project intended to provide advisory input, expertise, and co-creation support for Athlete Leadership and Unified Leadership initiatives. - Contribute to the review, adaptation, and strengthening of leadership content, trainings, and events to ensure they are accessible, relevant, and reflective of athlete perspectives. - Serve as a thought partner, co-creator, and advisor, ensuring that leadership content, trainings, and events are meaningful, accessible, and reflective of the real experiences of athletes with ID. - This role reinforces Special Olympics’ commitment to inclusive leadership and shared decision-making. Qualifications - Deep experience and familiarity with the issues concerning intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID). - Experience with Special Olympics programming. - Experience participating in Athlete Leadership trainings or councils. - Experience in Unified Leadership initiatives. - Demonstrated commitment to the mission and values of Special Olympics. - Strong communication skills (verbal and/or supported communication methods). - Access to a computer and internet for virtual meetings. - Reliability and ability to meet agreed timelines, with support when needed. - Willingness to share experience to improve leadership programming. - Experience co-facilitating training or serving as a speaker or a panelist. - Ability to provide constructive feedback. Requirements - Provide structured feedback (verbal and/or written) on Unified Leadership training content, materials, and implementation approaches. - Participate as a co‑facilitator, speaker, or panelist in Unified Leadership sessions when needed. - Advise on best practices for meaningful inclusion of people with ID in leadership roles and decision-making structures. - Review leadership materials for accessibility, clarity, and relevance from an athlete perspective and suggest improvements. - Contribute to the review, adaptation, and co-creation of content for the Leadership & Skills Curriculum. - Support the development of practical tools, reflection activities, and real-life application exercises. - Facilitate or co-facilitate pilot sessions, provide feedback, and support the evaluation of participant experience. - Participate (virtually or in person, as agreed) in webinars, staff meetings, trainings, and events. - Participate in focus groups representing the athlete perspective. - Support preparation of athlete speakers and leaders when requested. - Serve as an advisory voice in strengthening inclusive practices within Leadership Development structure. - Participate in periodic check-ins (weekly or biweekly) with the Global Manager for Leadership Development. - Participate as a panelist for job interviews. Benefits - Estimated Time Commitment: 240-400 hours and possibly additional hours depending on project needs. - Project Duration: 12 months (June 2026 – June 2027).

Role Description The intern will gain practical experience in the creation, design, review and publication of coach education and development materials, such as online e-learning courses, sport specific coaching guides, and other beneficial materials to coaches. They will also gain practical experience in the application of academic research into material design and the forecasting of use of materials, courses and resources from coaches around the world. In addition to this they will work with staff from many different countries, learning to communicate efficiently with people who speak different languages and are in varying time zones. The intern will receive formal/informal training in the following: - Online e-learning course design and development - Presentation skills – creation and delivery of materials - Communication skills – via email, online (zoom/Teams), in-person - Logistics – organisation of meetings and materials - Review – materials to be published On completion the intern will have attained skills in: - Communication, collaboration and working independently - Microsoft Office suite, most notably Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint - Application of peer-reviewed research to practical and tangible resources for coaches We will work with the intern to identify areas of interest and assign tasks related to those areas. Qualifications - Competent in the use of Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint - Excellent communication and interpersonal skills - Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines - Capable of working independently - Actively or intending to coach a sport or sports Requirements - 200 hours minimum – flexible work hours - Days of Work: Monday – Friday Job Tasks - Administrative assistance with projects - Assistance with online course content design - Online course beta-testing - Revision of documents prior to release e.g. coaching guides, scope of work documents - Assistance with identifying and reviewing latest coaching and disability research papers - Assistance with applying research to Special Olympics resources - Assistance with creation of promotional content for coaching resources and working with communications to publish content Benefits - This is a paid role and is flexible in terms of days and hours of work. Company Description Special Olympics is the leading global sporting organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its aim is to offer year-round sporting opportunities and to promote inclusive sport and society through breaking down barriers surrounding people with different abilities.