Camp Shriver "Athlete Camps"

Brings together athletes with intellectual disabilities and their peers without intellectual disabilities on the same team for training and competition. Each year the summer sports program Camp Shriver is hosted in various areas of Louisiana to build and develop skills and relationships. The primary goal is to provide another level of challenge for higher ability athletes and promote equality and inclusion. For more information on Camp Shriver click here.

Find a Camp Shriver in your area

Camp Shriver is, and will continue to be, a place for people with intellectual disabilities to learn new sports skills and improve individual sport performance, participate in individual and team sports, build friendships and have fun with partners who have signed on and trained as camp volunteers.

The Camp is social as well as athletic and campers will come from public and private schools, volunteer agencies, and the local community. The key focus of Camp Shriver is to build and develop, throughout the Camp, lasting positive relationships between and among staff, campers, and volunteers. A critical objective is to inspire all Camp participants to continue and build on their Camp experience. For the volunteers (partners), to keep in contact with their special partners, openly include people with intellectual disabilities in their daily lives, and encourage colleagues, friends, and family to join the Special Olympics movement and volunteer. For the athletes, to sign up and participate in year-round Special Olympics activities and continue to improve their individual performance, and recruit their friends to get involved.

Camp Shriver Goals

The goals of Camp Shriver are to:

1) recruit new athletes and volunteers, especially from hard-to-reach urban areas, into the Special Olympics family,

2) create opportunities for these athletes and volunteers, in an atmosphere of understanding, learning, and sharing, so that new friendships between athletes and their partners (volunteers) are created and continue to thrive through participation in Unified Sports in the coming year,

3) provide new sports and other opportunities for all participants as well as strengthen existing sports camp experiences for people with intellectual disabilities,

4) focus on and enhance the quality of individual and team sports training with measurable outcomes for campers and volunteers, and

5) rekindle the energy that helped form the basis for Special Olympics and develop the Camp Shriver program in communities throughout the world.

Camp Shriver Parameters

In order to achieve the goals set forth for Camp Shriver, certain parameters will be established, including pre-camp training for all staff, campers, and volunteers. This will include specific details of how best to work together in sports and social activities. Campers will generally include elementary, middle, and high school age youngsters with intellectual handicap. The Camp Shriver program will in many, if not most, cases, help supplement on-going local community school activities.

Camp Shriver and Special Olympics

Camp Shriver furthers the mission, vision, and spirit of Special Olympics and fully supports the strategic goals and objectives of the program. As presented in the information above, "Camp Shriver”, will connect with a new generation of athletes, coaches, families, young volunteers, supportive organizations, and sponsors. The Camp will enhance the quality of Special Olympics sports and sports training while improving the individual performance of the athletes involved. Camp Shriver will also initiate and build on lasting friendships, most importantly, between and among campers and volunteers.