**Community partner:** Special Olympics Lithuania 

**Social issues:** Community Cohesion - At Risk Youth 

**Ambassadors:** Matt Mitchell, Deividas Sirvydis, Dovydas Giedraitis 

**Main Life Skills:** Communication, Confidence, Equality, Integration, Respect and Team Building 

**About the program:** 

For the 2024/25 season, Zalgiris Kaunas has teamed up with Special Olympics Lithuania to create a positive, empowering environment that encourages personal growth, confidence, and social skills among young people facing social exclusion and stigma. 

The project is designed around a series of 24 basketball sessions held on Zalgiris’s practice court in Kaunas, welcoming up to 16 participants per session. Young individuals aged between 12 and 25, of mixed genders, benefit from weekly, hour-long sessions with dedicated coaches and volunteers. With guidance from Special Olympics coaches, participants learn basketball skills while building trust, self-belief, and teamwork in a supportive, structured space. A key highlight includes attending a EuroLeague game, where participants get to experience the excitement of a live game and support their team in the arena. 

Zalgiris first-team players Matt Mitchell, Deividas Sirvydis, and Dovydas Giedraitis will join the One Team program as ambassadors this season. In this role, Mitchell, Sirvydis, and Giedraitis will participate in select training sessions, share insights, and encourage participants on their journey towards greater confidence, teamwork, and self-belief.  

The program’s goal is not just skill development in basketball but fostering life skills, resilience, and a lifelong passion for sports among participants, who are also celebrated with special incentives such as game tickets, team uniforms, and awards.  