As a California Best Buddies Ambassador, Ben Haworth has spent over two years empowering others to become leaders in their communities. Through his role as a speech coach for the Best Buddies Ambassador Training program, Ben helps individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) find their voice, share their personal stories, and advocate for inclusion. Learn more from Ben’s perspective:

“As a California Best Buddies Ambassador for over two years now, I have had the honor of working with others that are equally passionate about becoming leaders within the Best Buddies community. A Best Buddies Ambassador is an individual with or without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who represents Best Buddies in the community.

One of my favorite roles as an Ambassador is volunteering as a speech coach for our Best Buddies Ambassador Training program. New Ambassadors attend training sessions to learn how to raise awareness about inclusion and spread the word about Best Buddies. The goal of each session is to guide individual ambassadors to create a short speech that shares their personal experiences on a topic of their choice with a call to action, incorporating the Best Buddies mission.

The speech coach plays a critical part during the training by supporting the incoming Ambassador on a journey of self-advocacy and discovery. During the sessions, we meet one-on-one to provide personal feedback and individual support throughout the process. Together, we brainstorm ideas to create a unique and impactful speech, connecting personal experiences and perspectives. Depending on the individual, we discuss tips on how to deliver the speech, how to edit and revise, or sometimes I simply act as a sounding board to listen and give encouragement. At the conclusion of the speech writing, ambassadors have the opportunity to present their speech to the other training attendees. This is my favorite part of the process. Listening to the individual speeches is inspiring and I always walk away learning something new from each Ambassador. After the speeches, there is time to reflect, connect, and review feedback on the presentation.

Overall, being a Best Buddies speech coach has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a volunteer. Having been on both sides of the process, I can honestly say I never thought I would write an inspirational speech about myself and deliver it, and eventually assist individuals just like me to experience and share the same feelings of empowerment, inclusion, and self-advocacy.” – Ben Haworth