A participatory approach to redeveloping coach and volunteer online training modules: A Special Olympics context

“On-going coach and volunteer training are essential to providing high-quality, evidence-informed practices in sport settings. This study aims to extend Special Olympics Ontario and Special Olympics Canada’s online training platform for coaches and volunteers by working with athletes with intellectual disabilities, current Special Olympics coaches, and families of Special Olympics athletes. An iterative process will be used to understand how to best deliver and engage online users with the content, and how to adapt the knowledge to contexts across Canada, socioeconomic status, ages, abilities, genders, facilities, and other variable factors. The objective is to develop a working, sustainable online training platform for Special Olympics Ontario with later implementation to Special Olympics Canada, for all coach and volunteer training. As the researcher, this project will inform theory, practice, and knowledge translation gaps that currently exist in the field of disability and sport.”

Faculty Supervisor:

Ann Fudge Schormans

Student:

Krystn Orr

Partner:

Special Olympics Canada

Discipline:

Social work

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation

University:

McMaster University