Best Buddies International/

Best Buddies New Mexico

Best Buddies provides friendships, jobs and leadership opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

When people with disabilities are unable to attain or maintain a job, it is most often due to an absence of social skills, rather than an inadequacy to perform the work required. Best Buddies introduces socialization and leadership opportunities providing the necessary tools for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to become more independent and more included in the community. Best Buddies Middle and High Schools matches students with intellectual disabilities with other middle and high school students and creates one-to-one friendships between them. In today's middle and high schools, students with intellectual disabilities often enter the same building and walk the same hallways as their peers, but are frequently left out of social activities. By introducing Best Buddies to public and private middle and high schools, we are crossing the invisible line that too often separates those with disabilities from those without. Best Buddies Colleges matches people with intellectual disabilities with college students and creates one-to-one friendships between them. In the past, individuals with intellectual disabilities have not had the opportunity to have friends outside of their own, often isolated, environment. e-Buddies creates e-mail friendships between people with and without intellectual disabilities. Using the technology of e-mail, e-Buddies brings additional, unconventional opportunities to people with intellectual disabilities.

Best Buddies Jobs was created in 1994 in order to provide job training and employment opportunities for people with IDD to obtain employment in integrated community settings.  The purpose of Best Buddies Jobs is to provide person-centered  supported employment services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The program focuses on developing competitive, integrated jobs that allow participants to earn an income, pay taxes, and work in an environment alongside others in the community.  Through Best Buddies Jobs, people with IDD receive individualized services and ongoing support to secure and maintain jobs of their own choosing at competitive wages.  Best Buddies Jobs focuses on incorporating people with ID in jobs that are in non-traditional employment settings for the IDD population, such as working in professional office settings and other integrated workplaces.