Méliss Desmond
Méliss Desmond (they/them) is developing a career in public health, with a deep interest in investigating and creating equitable health systems through research and community-based policy. They are also a multi-disciplinary artist practicing with time-based media and curatorial design as a means for anthropological exploration. Méliss holds a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University, Montréal in Applied Human Sciences, Human Relations and in the following years, plans on getting a Msc in Global Health with a focus on displaced persons health.
Report
Over the next three years, Special Olympics aims to develop and implement a global family strategy focused on engaging, educating, and empowering families of athletes to promote inclusion. This project will seek to provide insights into current family engagement practices, assess their impact on the social-emotional well-being of parents, identify best practices, and offer recommendations for future family engagement initiatives. The overarching goal of this project is to help Special Olympics understand the impact of family engagement on the social emotional well-being of Special Olympics parents from low- and middle-income countries. In line with SOI’s “Nothing About Us Without US” principle, the Fellow will work alongside a Special Olympics athlete leader on all phases of this project. Please read the full project description.
Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition for over 4 million individuals with intellectual disabilities worldwide, fostering physical fitness, courage, and joy while promoting friendship and inclusion. With programming in 201 countries across seven global regions, Special Olympics aims to drive social change, improve health, and build inclusive communities to enable full social participation and lifelong fitness for people with intellectual disabilities.