Milestones

Best Buddies Ambassadors becomes Best Buddies’ seventh formal program.

Best Buddies Promoters officially launches as the eighth program for the 2012-2013 school year. It becomes the first Best Buddies program open to elementary schools.

Best Buddies celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Best Buddies launches the I’m In To Hire campaign to promote the business benefits of hiring people with IDD.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act requires states to include persons with disabilities in all workforce programs, including expanding competitive, integrated employment opportunities for transition-age students with disabilities.

The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE Act) allows persons with disabilities to create tax-free savings to cover qualified expenses such as education, housing, and transportation. The bill would supplement, but not supplant, benefits provided through private insurances, the Medicaid program, the supplemental security income program, the beneficiary’s employment, and other sources.

In October 2015 A&E Network partnered with Best Buddies and premiered a new docu-series, Born This Way, which chronicles the lives of seven young-adults with Down syndrome, several of whom are Best Buddies participants.

Best Buddies Global Ambassador Guy Fieri hosts the inaugural Guy Cooking with Best Buddies Celebrity Chef Food & Wine Festival at Harvard Stadium as part of the Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port.

The Best Buddies Alumni Association officially launches with the focus of developing a lifelong friendship between Best Buddies and its Alumni, which includes all former volunteers, students, staff and board members.

In May 2017, Best Buddies hosts the inaugural Mother’s Day Brunch in Malibu, CA, with Global Ambassador Cindy Crawford and her daughter, Kaia Gerber.