Non Profit Spotlight- Best Buddies

IN INDIANA

By: Angela Arlington

Best Buddies Indiana is a local chapter of Best Buddies International, which has changed lives in 54 countries around the globe.

“Our programs build one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), offering social interactions while improving the quality of life and level of inclusion for a population that is often isolated and excluded,” said Mark Lantz, Deputy Director of Programs and Operations at Best Buddies Indiana. “Through their participation, people with IDD form meaningful connections with their peers, gain self-confidence and self-esteem, and share interests, experiences and activities that many other individuals enjoy.”

One on One Friendships: Best Buddies builds friendships between people with and without IDD, offering social mentoring while improving the quality of life and level of inclusion. One-to-one friendship happens at our school chapters and through our adult friendship program, Best Buddies Citizens. A participant with IDD is paired with a person without IDD based on location and shared interests for at least one year of friendship. For school programs, matches typically start at the beginning of the school year. Then, buddies participate in activities and spend quality in-person time together at least twice a month for buddy pairs of all ages. Best Buddies offices and chapters plan events, host group activities, support friendship matches, and provide onsite support. “Some events that happened this past fall were a pumpkin patch visit, apple orchard visit, bowling, cookies and canvas, and many more! Check out our social media to see some events done by our school partners,” Mark said.

Buddy pairs connect by email, phone calls, texting, social media, or written correspondence at least once a week. For e-Buddies © , participants communicate via email at least once a week for a year. Best Buddies staff members maintain regular contact with friendship program participants to ensure the quality of matched pairs.

Integrated Employment: The Best Buddies Jobs program is focused beyond the typical jobs in which a person with IDD might be placed. Best Buddies focuses on finding work that matches the job seeker’s interests and talents.

“We have participants all over the greater Indianapolis area,” Mark said. “Some great partners are the Children’s Museum, Stone Creek Dining, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, Telemon, Cake Bake, IU Health, and many more! It takes between 2-6 months to find a match after a discovery period. It has to be an excellent match for both the employer and the participant. We will soon have a participant working at Edible Arrangements after the individual showed a passion for food and creativity!”

Leadership Development: Best Buddies Ambassadors offers people with and without IDD the opportunity to gain the public speaking skills, self-esteem, and confidence needed to successfully advocate for themselves, their peers, and Best Buddies in communities, workplaces, and government.

“When a Best Buddies participant joins the Ambassador program, they enter into a series of group and private training sessions in speech writing and public and conversational speaking to become advocates for themselves and the disability rights movement,” Mark noted. Once trained, Ambassadors work with Best Buddies staff to identify public speaking opportunities in their local community where they can share their personal stories. Those could be Best Buddies chapters, businesses, legislators, interest groups, and donors.

Each Ambassador is paired with a speech coach, who helps them brainstorm, organize, write, edit and practice a speech and provides one-on-one attention as needed. Throughout their participation in the program, Ambassadors have access to a variety of ongoing advocacy training led by Best Buddies staff. As Ambassadors gain advocacy experience in conversational and public speaking, they have the opportunity to grow into a State or Global Ambassador, where they may be invited to speak nationally or internationally on behalf of Best Buddies.

For more information, email Indiana@bestbuddies.org or visit www.bestbuddies.org/indiana