On December 5-8, 2009, East China Family Forum and Young Athletes activities were held in Fuzhou, Fujian, China. 40 Family members from 7 provinces of China, i.e. Fuzhou, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui) and 20 young athletes participated in the activities. Leaders from local Disabled Person’s Federation also attended the event.
The event was sponsored by Mattel.
Introduction of SO history, FSN and YA Program (the DPF officials also sat in the audience)
Discussion by the family leaders Family leader shared good practices of developing FSN
Young Athlete demonstration
Two third of the invited families are the experienced family members who either actively lead the local family activities, volunteer in the local SO competition or have a position in the local Association of Intellectual Disabled Person’s Relatives under DPF. They knew well about the policies/constitutions related to the people with disabilities and had more thoughts regarding the career and social position of the athletes. Their perspectives were helpful for the new families more easily involving their children to the local Special Olympics Programs and locate the social resources. The information collected from the forum also benefits the region for its future plan on family development.
The families were no longer just focusing on sharing the ‘misery’ of the family as we saw from the previous family trainings years ago, instead of that, we saw optimism and enthusiasm from the families throughout the forum. The new joined families were greatly encouraged.
