In June 2023, the Special Olympics World Games, the world's largest inclusive sports event, will take place in Berlin. People with intellectual disabilities will compete in 28 different sports. One week before the World Games, from June 12 to 15, the Host Town Program takes place.
That is why the Inclusion Day 2022 focused not only on inclusion, but also on sports. Among the guests were the athlete spokeswoman of Special Olympics NRW, Stefanie Wiegel, as well as the team of the Langenfeld sports office. After a short introduction and an interesting interview with Stefanie Wiegel, everybody was invited to participate in finding the best ideas for inclusive concepts surrounding the Host Town Program. For this purpose, the participants could join one of five different working groups: sports, communication, mobility, education, culture and leisure. Within these groups, the participants first got to know each other and then started collecting ideas to make Monheim am Rhein even more inclusive.
During the group phase, Sarah Lierz, the City’s Inclusion Officer, also provided an introduction course in translation into plain language. After a rich buffet lunch, each group presented the results from the group discussions, providing new ideas and impulses. The Inclusion Day 2022 ended with a few concluding words which were – just like the rest of the event – simultaneously translated by two sign language interpreters.
