ABOUT SPECIAL HOOPS

For children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, it can be challenging to participate in mainstream sports. 

Quite often, society does not provide provisions that can accommodate them. Additionally, according to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, children with disabilities are two to three times more likely to experience bullying than their peers without disabilities. 

To help this population feel more a part of society rather than excluded from it, particularly in the area of athletics, and to reduce and prevent their experiences with bullying, Special Hoops was formed.

The nonprofit hosts the annual Special Hoops 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, which provides individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities opportunities to compete athletically with the support and guidance of mental health professionals as well as elite student athletes of the AAU basketball team, the Greensboro Warriors.

Through a proprietary anti-bullying curriculum, team members learn how to serve as peer mentors to participants, and leverage their status as star athletes to influence their schoolmates to restrain from and/or halt bullying behavior.