Best Buddies International in Colorado

Best Buddies, a Kennedy-Shriver organization established through a grant from the Kennedy Foundation, began in 1987 when our CEO Anthony Kennedy Shriver launched a “Big Buddy” program while he was a student at Georgetown University. The program began with a group of volunteer college students who took time to “buddy up”/befriend children with Intellectual & Developmental disabilities (IDD) in an effort to include them in social opportunities granted to their typical peers (but lacking for the) and was recognized as a “socialization program”. In 1989, Big Buddies became incorporated as “Best Buddies”, a 501(c)(3), and was “America’s first national, unified, social, and recreational program for people with intellectual disabilities.”

Anthony Kennedy Shriver is son to Eunice Kennedy Shriver (founder of Special Olympics) and Robert Sargent Shriver (founder of the Peace Corps). Mr. and Mrs. Shriver are the only married couple to have both been individually awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their service in our communities. Eunice was one of 8 siblings (younger sister) to JFK. Their sister Rosemary (JFK’s younger sister and Eunice’s older sister) was born with IDD and instead of institutionalizing Rosemary, their parents kept her home where all of their siblings experienced inclusion first-hand. Because of this decision, history changed forever. In addition to Special Olympics launched by Eunice, brother JFK was the first president to hire someone with a disability in his administration. He was also the first president to launch the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to determine the cause of IDD and possible opportunities to prevent IDD. It has been said that JFK “brought intellectual disabilities ‘out of the shadows’ and into the public light.”

Since 1989, Anthony Kennedy Shriver has grown Best Buddies to include not just friendship programs for ages 5 to forever but also leadership, advocacy, job integration and inclusive living. Currently, our mission has advanced to over 47 countries and has helped over 200 million individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Moreover, in 2022, we celebrated 1,000 job placements throughout the United States with a 92% retention rate (some of these members have been placed in the back office of the NFL and one in a movie with Woody Harrelson in theaters on March 10!).

Best Buddies in Colorado has been actively growing since 2018 with a goal to expand opportunities for individuals with IDD throughout the entire State. In Colorado, the rate of disabilities is around 15% and continuing to climb. With ongoing staff turnaround and teacher shortages in our mountain regions, Best Buddies is hoping that our programs will alleviate the burden for children and adults with disability by providing consistent socialization to combat isolation and loneliness, while providing support to educators and vital resource staff. We believe we can work together as a community to help all members thrive and envision a day where inclusion is so widely accepted that organizations like Best Buddies are no longer needed.