The annual One Team Awards will be presented during September’s Annual Workshop, and between now and then we will be telling a short success story from each of the six shortlisted clubs. Here it’s the turn of Olympiacos Piraeus.
Kay is a 13-year-old boy who has been hosted in an institution for the last eight years. This rejection and abandonment has left him lacking in confidence and often meant he resorted to using violence and aggression to express his frustrations.
Before joining the Olympiacos One Team program, he lacked focus and was generally bored and disruptive in group activities. One Team has changed this. The organized program has provided Kay with a much-needed structure, and basketball has boosted his enthusiasm as well as allowing him to form lifelong friendships.
Kay is now a motivated, positive and calm young boy who aspires to play basketball and become a new Antetokounmpo. He can share his compassion and love with others, including his roommates, and is now able to understand the importance of accepting people’s differences. He has become a key part of the One Team program, sharing his enthusiasm for the sport with those around him and helping those who struggle with new skills.
One Team, supported by Turkish Airlines as the One Team Founding Patron and with the collaboration of Special Olympics as Proud Partner, uses basketball to achieve real social impact in our communities.
With an innovative model of interconnectedness across an entire continent, Euroleague Basketball and its clubs have developed a complete CSR program that brings together activities from each team in an integrated, impactful way, working under the theme of ‘community integration’ that actively addresses targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 on Reduced Inequalities.