on April 30th fourteen people came to Boston College for The BUILD Program. The BUILD Program is Buddies United in Leadership Development and they learned how to speak in public and self-advocate for people with disabilities.
It was a very good program; I liked to be front and center and I gave a speech last year. This year I did four speeches – the first one I did was awesome and in Indianapolis at Leadership Conference and I spoke about my job and about my Buddy Steve.
The second one was at the Boston Leadership Conference for people who didn’t go to the first one and I talked about what I learned at LC and the BUILD program and the “R” word.
Last year’s Build where gave an ice-breaker and a speech where everybody helped me out speaking and then I sent it to a Build person, my fourth speech was for the Job Program and I talked about how I do my job at Best Buddies.
My BUILD partner helped with making speeches – she helped me with writing and speaking. I felt comfortable giving the speeches and using a microphone. I got a lot of laughs! I know how to give a speech to over fifty people.
At this year’s BUILD training I worked with Chris Watkins and we role-played what you do for a person who has a disability and how you treat them in different situations. These showed self-advocacy. I also went the internet and looked for donations for lunch.
I’m teaching what I learned from LC last year. People were working very hard on their speeches. It’s a good program because it helped people be a better person. Build trainings can be emotional but people work hard and I have a picture with Anthony Shriver! I love him, he’s great. I miss hearing everybody speak.
What is BUILD?
Buddies United in Leadership Development (BUILD) assists the participants in our Best Buddies programs with intellectual disabilities to develop their leadership skills.
Separated into two tracks, Buddy Ambassador and Buddy Director, the program trains individuals in areas of leaderships and public speaking.
The Buddy Director track trains our Buddy Directors on how to be more effective chapter leaders, as well as provides education and materials for the officer corps and faculty advisors on how to best utilize the Buddy Director role.
The Buddy Ambassador track aims to improve public-speaking skills and confidence in speaking about Best Buddies and our mission. Speech Coaches are only requested for Buddy Ambassador Trainings.
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