Aisling’s story shows how special people are doing it for themselves

AISLING Beacom has had a busy week already. She’s a Special Olympics athlete and swimmer, and a regular medal-winner.

More to the point, she’s also a member of Special Olympics Athlete Leadership Programme. Last Saturday she addressed the AGM of Special Olympics Ireland about what it means to be involved in athlete leadership, but she only just had time to fit it into her schedule.

A few years ago Ireland received the Franklin D Roosevelt Award for progress made in the field of disability. The award resulted in a cheque being given to Special Olympics Ireland in recognition of its work in particular.

This year, the award is being given to Poland, but the organisers also wanted to make a special presentation to Kofi Annan, the outgoing secretary-general of the UN, who has been a major supporter of the award. They wanted a Special Olympics athlete to make the presentation to Mr Annan, and Aisling was selected to represent the other athletes.

So immediately after her address to the AGM in Dublin, Aisling had to fly to New York where yesterday she made the presentation to Mr Annan on behalf of athletes with intellectual disabilities all around the world. I imagine that as you’re reading this, Aisling, her duty done, is hitting Bloomingdales. It’s just as well she’s fit.

Within Special Olympics, the athlete leadership programme (we call it ALPS) aims to give athletes opportunities to become involved in aspects of the programme apart from sports training and competition. Many of our athletes have taken on new and challenging roles and become part of local, regional and all-island committees. Working with a mentor, people participating in the ALPS undertake training in order to give them the skills for the areas in which they are particularly interested in becoming involved — and that can include public speaking, being part of a committee, helping to run an event or coaching other athletes.

Flying to New York to meet Kofi Annan isn’t, admittedly, an everyday part of the job, but the skills necessary to do it come as part of the package. Special Olympics is by no means the only organisation in Ireland that runs programmes like ALPS that are aimed at enabling people to realise their potential.

A great many of the organisations that operate in the area of disability and the broader field of disadvantage have come to the belief that real citizenship and equality comes about through giving people the skills to tear down the barriers they face. That doesn’t mean abandoning people to their own devices, or not providing supports. It just means trying to build programmes that respect the abilities, talents and potential of individuals.

One very interesting initiative that I’ve come across in this area — and what better time to mention it than Ryder Cup week — is the First Tee. It was the brainchild of the World Golf Foundation (whose global ambassador is Gary Player) and it was created in the USA in 1997 to introduce young people of all backgrounds to the game of golf and the life lessons it can teach.

I know non-golfers tend to sneer at ideas like this, that you can learn more from a game than just the game. (As a bad golfer, I know you can learn a lot about frustration).

But one thing I do know about golf that applies to no other sport in the world — if you want a referee in golf, you send for a referee. The game, uniquely, relies on the integrity of the people who play it. It’s also a game that combines both mental and physical attributes at some level.

And those two things alone have to say something about the potential of the sport to contribute to the development of life skills.

The First Tee was started here in 2005 and is one of five branches outside the US — Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

The programme is still very much in its infancy, but it’s growing, and I suspect our national obsession with the Ryder Cup could provide a stimulus for further development.

Their mission statement is to “impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programmes that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf”. In this respect it is quite similar to what Tiger Woods has set up with his Tiger Woods Foundation.

IN much the same way the individual sports provide the platform for Special Olympics, for First Tee the game of golf is the platform for instruction and development. Through the First Tee Life Skills Experience, a curriculum for teaching character education through specific life skills, children and teenagers discover how the skills essential to success on a golf course can help them flourish in life. These skills include personal development, teamwork, relationship-building, relating to others, social skills and managing difficult situations. And work is put in to try to associate some of the things you need to use on a golf course with how you can live the rest of your life — things like being positive in the face of adversity or figuring out the consequences of decisions.

As I said, the First Tee is only starting out in Ireland, though it seems to me the sort of programme that could grow fairly quickly. It might also encourage golf clubs, some of which can be stuffy and exclusive places, to open their doors and enable more people to enjoy their facilities. You can find out more about it on www.thefirstteeireland.org

I hope this doesn’t sound like too much of a sermon, but all of us have hurdles to cross. Whether it be disability, poverty, ageing or the myriad other things that affect us, a time always comes when we need help. But sometimes, the best possible help is the set of directions that enable us to get over the hurdles on our own. You know the old proverb — “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Programmes like ALPS and the First Tee are a bit like that. They encourage people to grow and be the best with what they have. I have been amazed at the confidence that Aisling Beacom — and her friends and colleagues — have developed from their own work. When I was not all that much younger, the future for people like Aisling was bleaker. Mums and dads had to worry about what would happen when they died.

That issue isn’t solved yet, not by a long shot. But one big thing has changed: don’t talk to Aisling, or her friends, about institutional care or the loss of independence. They were the solutions of a generation ago, and they weren’t acceptable then. We used to protest on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities then.

Protest is still necessary, but they’re well on the way to being able to protest on their own behalf now. I reckon that’s progress.