Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, today announces its partnership with Special Olympics, the global movement that unleashes the human spirit through the transformative power of inclusion through sport, leadership development, health advocacy, school engagement and youth leadership.

Over the course of the next four years, the partnership will focus on Special Olympics’ Global Youth Leadership work, which brings together youth leaders with and without intellectual disabilities at nearly 200 global, regional, national and local summits. These summits provide a platform for youth leaders to discuss and implement inclusion-based projects in their own communities.

As part of Kantar’s partnership with Special Olympics, the company will fundraise to empower these young leaders and find opportunities for employees to volunteer and participate. Kantar will additionally look for opportunities to engage and support at other Special Olympics events globally.

The partnership with Special Olympics is part of Kantar’s just-launched corporate social responsibility programme, entitled Extraordinary People. The name derives from Kantar’s global brand purpose, ‘To inspire our people, our clients and society to create and flourish in an extraordinary world’. “We are very proud to be global partners of Special Olympics, helping to advance their mission to end the ongoing exclusion, isolation, discrimination, and health injustice for people with intellectual disabilities,” said Lynnette Cooke, Chair Extraordinary People Programme.

As part of the programme, all Kantar employees are given paid days off to volunteer for non-profit organisations that they feel passionately about, large or small, local or global. Each year, there are growing number of opportunities for employees to participate in team events where they are volunteering time or expertise toward a worthy cause.

Eric Salama, CEO Kantar explains “The world is hugely varied, and that’s what makes it extraordinary. We want to ensure we’re helping to enable everyone in society to flourish, by building an inclusive and diverse society, creating positive impact in the communities we live and work in and encouraging our employees to tap into opportunities to support local causes and global programmes.”

Special Olympics Chairman, Timothy Shriver commented “If we are to realize our vision of a world that accepts and celebrates the incredible strengths of people with intellectual disabilities, we must begin with the youth of today, our future leaders, to embrace inclusion in their communities. Kantar’s support of our Global Youth Leadership work will help our efforts to empower youth to reshape perceptions across the globe and foster a future of inclusion.”

Soeren Palumbo, Senior Director of Global Youth Engagement at Special Olympics International adds, “With the support of Kantar, Special Olympics Youth Leadership Summits will grow its successful leadership development model to empower over 1,000 young leaders with and without intellectual disabilities to become innovators for inclusion in countries all over the world. From the bi-annual Special Olympics Global Youth Leadership Summit to hundreds of local and school-based Youth Leadership Summits, the support of Kantar and its employees will ensure that young people worldwide have the platform and skills to realize their vision of more inclusive communities.”

About Special Olympics Special Olympics is a global inclusion movement using sport, health, education and leadership programs every day around the world to end discrimination against and empower people with intellectual disabilities. Founded in 1968, the Special Olympics movement has grown to more than 6 million athletes and Unified Sports partners in more than 190 countries. With the support of more than 1 million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics delivers 32 Olympic-type sports and over 100,000 games and competitions throughout the year. Special Olympics is supported by individuals, foundations and partners, including Bank of America, the Christmas Records Trust, The Coca-Cola Company, ESPN, Essilor Vision Foundation, the Golisano Foundation, the Law Enforcement Torch Run® for Special Olympics, Lions Clubs International, Microsoft, Safilo Group, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, TOYOTA, United Airlines, and The Walt Disney Company. Click here for a full list of partners. Engage with us on: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and our blog on Medium. Learn more at www.SpecialOlympics.org.