Best Buddies Kickoff Party details announced

1. What is Best Buddies? Best Buddies was founded 32 years ago by Anthony Kennedy Shriver after noticing the unjustified lack of opportunities for people with IDD to socialize with nondisabled peers. It is the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Our programs empower people with IDD by helping them form meaningful friendships with their peers, secure successful jobs, live independently, improve public speaking, self-advocacy and communications skills and feel valued by society. 2. How do you do you accomplish this? What are your programs? Our founding pillar is Friendship – inspired by Anthony’s friendship with his Aunt Rosemary. We help establish friendship chapters from elementary school through adulthood. When you are in elementary school, everyone loves everybody – no differences. By Middle School differences are noticed and begin to force distancing and isolation and even bullying. In fact, bullying is a common experience among 70% of adolescents with disabilities! In High School everyone is so busy and SpEd students are often segregated, so it’s even more lonely. So Best Buddies strives to keep the feeling of inclusion from elementary age through adulthood. This is not a mentorship program – this is true interpersonal relationships – real friendships where kids go bowling or to the football game or the movies and build friendships that can last a lifetime. 3. What other programs do you have? As our friendship chapters grow, naturally leadership skills evolve. All students grow in Social Emotional Learning and advocate for inclusion. They all learn to give speeches and have conversations about acceptance and opportunity. They are the employers of tomorrow and Ambassadors for our mission. Thus our second pillar is Leadership. Meaningful Employment is our third pillar – and students with IDD need to start thinking about this in Middle School and early High School just like everyone else. Oftentimes, parents are so consumed in the every day needs of their SpEd student that it is quite normal to wake up the day after High School Graduation and think, “Now what?!?” We don’t want our students to graduate to the couch! So preparation and learning soft skills needs to begin in school. Did you know that 81% of people with IDD are not employed? Best Buddies Jobs program is very robust for our Adults with IDD. And like every BB program, it is required to be integrated. We are not seeking a situation where all the employees with Special Needs are sitting in a corner folding napkins. These are people working side by side with mainstream staff. Our program is unique in that we start with Jobs Development – where we work with the prospective employee to explore career options – and also something where they can have the opportunity to advance. Not just think of McDonald’s because they like to eat there! After that, we wo