Special Olympics has announced a $30 million commitment from Paychex founder Tom Golisano in support of critical health services for people with intellectual disabilities around the world.

The largest gift in Special Olympics' history will fund an expansion of the Special Olympics Healthy Communities program, which provides health services for people with intellectual disabilities. Over the last five years, the program helped conduct health screenings for 700,000 athletes and offered follow-up care; added 150,000 athletes to fitness and health programs; and trained more than 150,000 healthcare providers in sixty countries. According to the organization, people with intellectual disabilities die, on average, sixteen to twenty years earlier than the general population, often as a result of treatable conditions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, many people with intellectual disabilities have not had access to critical care and resources such as ventilators and vaccines.

Special Olympics will use Golisano's gift to advance key strategies over the next five years, including conducting three million in-person and virtual health screenings in more than a hundred countries and ensuring that follow-up care is received; improving the overall health and fitness of 600,000 athletes; providing 650,000 young children with intellectual disabilities and their families with early intervention services that enable them to walk, run, skip, and play earlier; creating the Golisano Virtual University to train 100,000 additional healthcare professionals to treat people with intellectual disabilities; and creating the first-ever Global Report on the Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities to evaluate disparities across health systems and inform the development of inclusive policies and practices in target countries.

"I am pleased to continue financial support for Special Olympics' extraordinary health work, which is giving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities improved access to health services and the opportunity to live happier, more productive lives," said Golisano, who has a son with an intellectual disability and made two previous gifts to the organization through the Golisano Foundation. "Special Olympics' impact on the health of people with ID is impressive — as is its strategy on how to build on this success over the next several years. The focus on measurement, standardization of practices, early diagnosis, a trained workforce, and health systems that demonstrate inclusive policies will effectively position Special Olympics to further our mutual goal of health equity."

(Photo credit: Special Olympics)