HSBC Partners with Special Olympics

HSBC’s partnership with Special Olympics continues to grow, and ABILITY recently celebrated a successive Involve Grant award for 2024, enabling us to plan some exciting new volunteer events in the coming year.

The October 2023 Unified Bocce event with HSBC and Special Olympics allowed bank employees to experience first-hand how “Unified Sport” promotes social inclusion through shared sports training and competition. The principle behind Unified Sport is that people with and without intellectual disabilities play together on the same sports team, leading to friendship and lasting understanding. Unified Sport embodies the principle of “Meaningful Involvement,” which optimizes participation by ALL team members for the overall success of the team.

Meaningful Involvement embodies HSBC’s partnership with the and Special Olympics, which provides opportunities for bank employees to meet and work alongside people with disabilities and their families. This reverse mentoring opportunity brings inclusion to life when athletes share their experiences with HSBC employees, thus eroding the “disability divide”. Inclusion is a core value at HSBC, and a vital component to building a sustainable business and culture where all people are valued, respected, and supported.

This year’s Bocce competition event paired HSBC managers with Special Olympics athletes to play several games together. As seen in the following videos, fun was had by all and lasting friendships were forged.

Videos of the event and conversations: