Spread the Word to End the Word is a youth driven campaign and every day there are young people, as well as family members and advocates, who are creating change in schools and communities. We need to hear those stories. For every one young person finding success in bringing about change, there are another 100 people trying to figure out how to do it themselves. Help us provide these resources for the community at-large by sharing your success stories so we can highlight them on our website and help everyone learn how they can be agents of change and create communities of inclusion and respect for all people.
Many of you have found success in combating the use of the R-word and are looking for projects that continue to build on your success. We're putting out an open call for you to use your story of success to create resources that we can highlight on the website so others can follow your lead and find success in their schools and communities in bringing inclusion and respect to all people.
Below are some suggested themes to help get the ideas flowing, but we are open to your creativity in sharing your story in the best way you know how. When you are ready to show off your work, email us at info@specialolympics.org with a link to the resource you've created and we'll get it up on the website!
Suggested Themes
The Struggle to Change a School Climate
- Show how you overcame teachers or administrators overlooking the problem of students using the R-word to bring about meaningful change in your school.
- Show how you inspired one of the ‘popular kids’ who in turn made it cool to stop using the R-word and respect students with intellectual disabilities.
Converting friends to advocates
- Show how you convinced your friend(s) that the R-word is hurtful and how you were able to inspire them to action to help build communities of inclusion and respect.
Spreading the Word
- Show how you were able to leverage your event, your message, a single action or series of activations into a major local news story or viral success.