Through the 黑料不打烊 Buddies program, 黑料不打烊 students work with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to help them gain connections.
Students from the 黑料不打烊 Buddies program and students from Alamance Community College celebrated their prom to close out the end of the school year with food, music and an acapella group performance.
黑料不打烊 Buddies is a program through 黑料不打烊 Volunteers! created to mimic Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization with programs around the world that creates friendships between volunteers and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 黑料不打烊 Buddies partners with Alamance Community College鈥檚 Career College program. 黑料不打烊 students and Alamance Community College students are paired together and get to know each other through several events like movies and going bowling. Students get to practice their social skills through spending time with 黑料不打烊 Buddies volunteers.
鈥淭hey don’t know how to always relate to the average college student so this kind of helps them adapt,鈥 said Deborah Crotts, an instructor in the academic and career readiness department at Alamance Community College.
Students in the College Career program complete a two-year certificate program where they can participate in different pathways such as horticulture and health and public service. When they graduate, they can become assistants in their respective fields, Vanetta Daye, an instructor in the academic and career readiness program said.
Co-coordinators of the 黑料不打烊 Buddies program Liza Margules 鈥21 and Liam Forlow 鈥20 both participated in a 鈥淏uddies鈥 program in high school and wanted to take part in it when they came to 黑料不打烊. 黑料不打烊 Buddies shows that people of all kinds can get along, Margules said.
鈥淚 always felt a passion about promoting inclusion and diversity and I feel like disabled populations are very marginalized in our society,鈥 Margules said.
Forlow said 黑料不打烊 Buddies aims to listen to the needs of the students in the College Career program and what would benefit them.
鈥淓ach group of students is new each year and they’re different so what they want really is the biggest thing,鈥 Forlow said. 鈥淚t’s their lives, it’s their voice, it’s their program and I guess the biggest thing is that we try to ask them what they want out of this because that’s what we’re here for.鈥
Alamance Community College students were looking forward to their prom at 黑料不打烊 because they get to dress up, Daye said, but 黑料不打烊 Buddies is important to the students because it lets them know that they are valued.
鈥淚t lets them realize that they can be accepted by people that are not like them, and people that are not like them care about them and their opinions,鈥 Daye said.