Sammy's Buddy Program (Shout, Inc.)

Sammy's Buddy Program works to support positive mental health by creating spaces and fostering environments in schools that encourage and celebrate acceptance, inclusion and an overall sense of belonging for children with disabilities. Sammy’s Buddy Program aims to mitigate the isolation and rise of depression felt by students with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. The focus to engage students in the tween and teen age groups is intentional to help elevate the sense of belonging, confidence and inclusion during these critical years. 

This year Sammy's Buddy Program has grown to allow for 3000 students to be seen, heard, and celebrated through expanding the four social and emotional learning-based initiatives: 

1. The Buddy Program pairs students with and without disabilities for enrichment throughout the school year.  Students are thoughtfully matched at the beginning of the program and spend 40-60 minutes participating in a monthly activity that could include social events, community service projects or other various hands-on projects.  
2. The Inclusion Library is a beautifully diverse group of book titles written by or about people with different disabilities, providing an inclusive collection of books donated to classrooms and school libraries to celebrate and elevate characters of all abilities. 
3. The Kindness Campaign encourages classrooms and entire schools to spread kindness through words and actions throughout the entire month of February.   
4. The Leadership Lesson is taught to general education students who participate in the Buddy Program. These leaders are given the training, tools and resources to understand the challenges that students with disabilities may face and are encouraged to advocate for those who perhaps cannot (literally) speak for themselves with regards to equity and accessibility.

Feedback and accountability are built into programming by capturing student concerns and thoughts through pre-activity surveys as well as feedback from post-program surveys.  Outcomes will include 95% of students with disabilities who will look forward to their interaction with their buddies and feel valued and seen within the school.  In addition, 90% of students without disabilities will demonstrate that their level of comfort and understanding around the challenges faced by students with disabilities has increased, and they are able to show empathy to their peers. 95% of staff will wish to continue Sammy's Buddy Program in their school.