Best Buddies Ambassadors is open to anyone seeking to develop advocacy and public speaking skills with the goal of sharing the mission and serving as an empowered leader in the disability rights movement. Though highly encouraged, it is not required that ambassadors also participate in one or more of our other programs.

Anyone who participates! The Best Buddies Ambassadors program gives participants an opportunity to play important roles in their local programs. Ambassadors will use the knowledge they gain to advocate, make positive changes in their life and community, and serve Best Buddies as a more confident leader.

Best Buddies Ambassador trainings are free and open to all participants in Best Buddies program.

After participating in a training, ambassadors are expected to find opportunities in their communities to share their stories and become more involved citizens.

Best Buddies Ambassadors educates and empowers people with and without IDD to be leaders and public speakers in their schools, communities, and workplaces. This program prepares people with IDD to become active agents of change.

Best Buddies staff identify volunteers in the community who are interested in learning public speaking and advocacy skills and volunteers who are willing to support ambassadors write their speeches by serving as speech coaches. Best Buddies staff train the speech coaches to support and empower ambassadors; they train ambassadors to develop engaging, progressive speeches that speak to the heart of the Best Buddies mission.

Best Buddies Ambassadors is a program that provides training for participants with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in areas of speech writing, public speaking, self-advocacy, and leadership. The Ambassadors program creates opportunities for participants to advocate for their passions and promote Best Buddies program.

Participants commit to being matched for a year, communicating on a weekly basis, and getting together 1-2 times a month. Matches report on their friendship each month by completing a friendship update. Participants should also commit to attending all workshops and training courses designated for them to ensure they gain the intended benefits.

Citizens are people with mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities who are graduates of the AlShafallah Center for Persons with Disability, the educational support departments in schools and centers for people with disabilities or who do not belong under any umbrella.

Through the Citizens, the comprehensive skills of the participants are developed in proportion to their abilities, where a specialized and efficient team works to measure their abilities, determine the appropriate activities for them, and prepare and invest all available capabilities to ensure the effective participation of all parties in this process and reduce the challenges that limit their integration and independence in society.

The Citizens are adults with mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities, graduates from the Shafallah Center for persons with disability, support sections in schools and centers for persons with disabilities, as well as those who are not affiliated with any organization. They are socially integrated through the formation of one-to-one friendships with their peers without disabilities from the university program or others of the same age and gender for one academic year.

We aims to develop the comprehensive skills of the Citizen participants according to their abilities. A specialized and competent team designs and implements suitable activities and workshops for them, utilizing and investing all available resources to ensure the effective participation of all parties in this process and to reduce the challenges that limit their integration and independence in the community.