Special Olympics Santa Barbara provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Special Olympics athletes develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and share their gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics Athletes and the community.

We would love to have you volunteer. We offer volunteer training for: coaches, fund raising volunteers, board (Area Committee) members, event volunteers, office assistants and interns, technology partners and to become a friend and supporter of our athletes and teams.

Description:
We provide sports training and athletic competition for 225 athletes in the Santa Barbara area and 550 in Santa Barbara County.

We offer 12 sports year-round including:
Aquatics, Basketball, Bocce, Bowling, Cycling, Floor Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Volleyball

History:
In 1963 Eunice Kennedy Shriver started a summer day camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities at her home in Maryland. From that camp came the concept of Special Olympics, a movement dedicated to empowering people with intellectual disabilities to realize their full potential and to develop their skills through year-round sports training and competition. Special Olympics was officially founded in 1968 when Shriver organized the first International Special Olympics Games. Today Special Olympics serves more than one million athletes in every state and over 160 foreign countries and territories.

Contact people:

Ali Roen, Volunteer Manager, (phone), (email) Sara Spataro, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

Earl Warren Showgrounds Santa Barbara, CA 93111 (See a map)

Directions:

At the corner of Calle Real and Las Positas, near Las Positas exit from 101.