Overview – Athletes are Why, Volunteers are How
SOMO is blessed with hundreds of people who volunteer with our programs. Many help out at practice, others coach, administer and help run our programs, right up to our Area Director, who is also a volunteer. We have on-the-field and work-from-home opportunities. The richness of our Special Olympics programs entirely reflects the richness, skills, and variety of our volunteers.
Talk to us! The best volunteer role for you may not be listed on this page even though you can help us. Great volunteer roles match your interests to our needs. It often takes creatively and flexibility to find the right match. We want to work with you to find the right win/win balance.
What Experience Do I Need?
If your interest is in on-the-field, experience is a sport is always desirable, but compassion and commitment often matter more. While we have head coaches with deep experience in their sport, we also have other great coaches and volunteers who learned their sport while volunteering for us. We offer sport-specific training to coaches and volunteers for all of our sports.
If your interest is off-the-field, we have opportunities helping us administer our programs, improve our communications, recruit athletes and volunteers, or organize our social and fundraising events. We may already have a volunteer opportunity that matches your skills, knowledge, experience, and availability.
What Training is Available?
Special Olympics provides training for all of our coaching and sports volunteer positions. We offer both sport-specific training and general training on best practices for coaching Special Olympics athletes. This chart provides an overview of our Coaching Education and Development Program.
We also offer training in all of our internal processes and systems. Administrative training is often provided in a one-on-one coaching setting.
“Leadership Volunteers” Are Our Most Vital Need
“Leadership Volunteers” take responsibility for delivering a portion of our programs, including supervising other volunteers who are assisting. Head Coaches and Team Managers are the most obvious examples of leadership volunteers, taking responsibility to organizing and managing their sport. Other leadership roles include managing our website, editing our newsletter, managing social media, equipment and uniform storage, processing volunteer and athlete applications, organizing sport qualifiers, organizing fundraising events, organizing athlete social events, etc. There are many opportunities to grow our program as we match up with the right leadership volunteers.
Most Volunteer Opportunities Require At Least a Season-Long Commitment
Our on-the-field activities occur across each sport’s season. These programs can only use volunteers that can commit to supporting the practices and competitions across that season. Our support activities either align with a sport’s season or are a year-long requirement.
We have very few day-of volunteer opportunities in our local program. However, Special Olympics Maryland, which organizes all state-level competitions for our sports, offers many day-of volunteer opportunities to work with our athletes. You can learn more their volunteer opportunities at Volunteer Opportunities – Special Olympics Maryland (somd.org).
Student Service Learning
Although most Special Olympics volunteers must at least high-school freshmen, SOMO welcomes Middle School and High School volunteers to participate as Buddies or Unified Partners in our youth sports programs. The Unified Sports concept is a Special Olympics concept that pairs athletes with and without disabilities to train and compete together as teammates.
We have found that the best “fit” for youth volunteers is a sports program with Special Olympic athletes the same age or younger. To that end, we encourage youth volunteers to look for a sport that interests them and has a youth component.
For example, during our Winter season, we have a Youth Basketball Program, and in the Fall, we have a Youth Soccer Program. Both offer training and competition. We ask that you commit to attending most of the practices to provide the continuity needed for a valuable experience for you and our athletes.
We also have training for High School age athletes in both 3v3 (half-court) and 5v5 (full court) basketball and welcome volunteers to train with those athletes as they prepare for Regional and State level competition. Details about all the team training times and dates are on our website.
Specific Volunteer Opportunities (As of 3/31/24)
Below is a list of specific positions where we are looking for volunteers. Please reach out even if you don’t see a position listed here that fits your interests. Our needs evolve rapidly and we don’t always succeed in keeping this page current. Thank you for understanding.
Please reach out to our Area Director, Shelly Bogasky (Director@somdmontgomery.org) if you are interested in volunteering for one of the positions listed below or in some other capacity.
Young Athlete Program Coordinator
The Young Athlete Program is for our beginning Athletes 3 to 7 years’ old.
The YAP Program runs 3 seasons, Soccer in the fall, Basketball in the winter and Track and Field in the spring. Each season is 6 sessions. We’re looking for someone to be responsible for all 3 seasons.
Requirements: Attending all of the sessions for the season, transporting the equipment, taking attendance, insuring all medical and volunteer forms are completed and keeping the Sport Coordinator updated.
Social Media Coordinator
This is a great opportunity for high school volunteers or adults to make use of their social media skills. SOMO uses Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but there is lots of opportunity to improve our social medial presence!
Requirements: Must have their own computer and/or smart phone access. Monitor social media and coordinate social media updates to reflect current SOMO activities (events and competitions).
