Best Buddies Capital Region

Best Buddies is a global volunteer movement creating opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Best Buddies Capital Region (BBCR) is a regional affiliate of Best Buddies International and supports over 2,800 Friendship Program participants at 48 middle school, high school and college chapters in Virginia and DC in which students with disabilities are paired in one-to-one matches with students without disabilities. Best Buddies Jobs enables people with IDD to earn an income, pay taxes, and work in an environment alongside others in the community. The Ambassadors program offers day-long sessions that teach our students and adult participants with IDD how to write and give speeches so that they may become self- advocates. 

The value and success of our programs shines through every day, such as when buddy pair Christina and Gabriele gave an inspiring speech at the Annual Disabilities Awareness Month Celebration in Washington, D.C. this past March. The theme of this year’s celebration was “Side by Side,” and hundreds of Virginia and DC residents came to listen to local leaders speak about the progress and challenges facing the disabilities community.

Gabriele and Christina spoke to a captivated crowd about their friendship and how they support each other every day. Both students shared some of their experiences and voiced their passion and gratitude for the Best Buddies Friendship Program. However, their friendship extends well beyond afterschool activities. Gabriele expressed that Best Buddies is like a community similar to a neighborhood filled with supportive people, and without that community she would not have been given the positive opportunities she has had in her life. Christina and Gabriele embodied the theme of the night as they spoke in tandem about how their friendship has improved their lives.

Gabriele also shared her passion for writing fiction, and urged the audience to look for her novel on store shelves some day! She concluded by stating “I feel very supported in my community because my community accepts me for who I am. My community is Best Buddies, and it has helped me in school, it has helped me get a job, and most importantly it helped me make friends who I will have the rest of my life.”