Best Buddies: Building Relationships for Those With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

What if you could directly impact the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) while fostering a more inclusive society? They could be autism, Down's Syndrome, FragileX and other not so visible disabilities that none the less, create challenging lifestyles for those experiencing them as well as the families who support those with these conditions. Join me, Jeff Holden, for an inspiring conversation with Lorraine Lomolino, Manger, Mission Advancement, for Best Buddies Sacramento, an international nonprofit dedicated to creating meaningful opportunities for those with IDD. Founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver in 1989, Best Buddies operates on five foundational pillars: friendship, jobs, leadership, living facilities, and family support. Lorraine shares how the Sacramento chapter is currently embracing three of these pillars—friendship, jobs, and leadership—and outlines the ambitious plans for expanding their services to include living facilities and family support in the near future.

Listen as we explore the exponential growth of Best Buddies Sacramento, fueled by critical partnerships with local businesses like Raley's, which provide invaluable support through mock interviews. Lorraine highlights the diverse funding sources that keep the organization thriving, from government grants to individual donations and large-scale fundraisers like the Friendship Walk and Champion of the Year campaign gala. Learn more about the significant impact these programs have on the community, the heartening success of sold-out events, and the ongoing efforts to increase school participation and employer connections. Lorraine’s insights offer a compelling glimpse into a world where inclusivity and opportunity are more than just ideals—they’re actionable goals transforming lives for more and more of our population with IDD.
To learn more about Best Buddies, visit https://www.bestbuddies.org/

Episode Chapter Summaries
(00:00) Best Buddies
Best Buddies supports individuals with IDD through friendship, jobs, leadership, living facilities, and family support programs in Sacramento.

(13:30) Building Community Through Best Buddies
Best Buddies Sacramento supports individuals with disabilities through partnerships, funding, and ambitious goals for future growth.

(24:34) Empowering Individuals With Developmental Disabilities
Community integration and employment are crucial for individuals with IDD, and interest forms help connect them to support and promote inclusivity.

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Transcript

Lorraine Lomolino: [00:00:00] These are really life changing opportunities for individuals who maybe have never had a friend before and finally being seen for the first time and somebody caring about them calling them on the phone. I speak to too many of our participants where that was the first time that they've ever had a friend.

The first time anybody's ever called them to ask how their day was and I think a lot of us can take that component of life for granted. So when you see it in action through our programs and just realizing how this should be, this should just be the normal of our society.

Jeff Holden: is to highlight a non profit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story, in their words, to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve, [00:01:00] as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations through podcasting. Thanks to our founding partners for their foresight and helping us transform the way conversations start. CAPTRUST fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations.

Runyon Saltzman Incorporated, RSE, marketing, advertising and Public Relations, creating integrated communications committed to improving lives and Western Health Advantage, a full service healthcare plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Before the episode begins, I wanna take a minute to share that.

We now have a website where you can sign up to get our weekly email updates on the latest episodes, transcripts to prior episodes. And see what else we have going on. Please be sure to register so you never miss an episode or any other important information we may have to share in the nonprofit space.[00:02:00] 

You can find us now@nonprofitpod.com. That's nonprofit pod.com. Easy peasy. You'll also notice on the website a microphone in the lower right hand corner. By clicking on it, you'll be able to leave me voicemail messages, maybe a question you'd like me to ask our guests. or just a comment on the program. I may even play your message in an upcoming episode.

I look forward to more engagement with you as we continue to grow and better serve our nonprofit community. Thanks. Disabilities come in many different forms. Not that one is less or greater than the other, but when the disabilities surprise us, like intellectual or developmental disabilities can do, They tend to create judgment that's unfair, unnecessary, and harmful.

Some disabilities we recognize and we have a predisposed expectation. Why are we surprised when we see somebody with Down syndrome fully engaged in society? Or autism? Or Asperger's? Or trauma victims? [00:03:00] Many times the outward appearance of individuals with IDD, intellectual or developmental disabilities, does not distinguish them as somebody with challenges.

And it starts in our school classrooms. My guest today lives and breathes in this space with a great deal of empathy. Her organization works with these individuals to create relationships that many may not have otherwise been able to create for any number of reasons. More importantly, finding employment for those they serve is the ultimate success as it allows those individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities the same access to our communities as any other human being.

And that's all they want. Relationships like everybody else and the ability to contribute to society, earn a living, and engage in their communities to the best of their ability. independently. That's what Best Buddies five pillars are all about. Ending the emotional, economic, and physical isolation of those with these challenges.

Lorraine Lomelino has been involved in nonprofits and fundraising [00:04:00] since she was nine years old and is the manager of Mission Advancement for Best Buddies in Sacramento. They're one of the largest 501c3 nonprofits serving this community in the country. Their roots of the organization run deep into some of the most recognized families.

And the Sacramento affiliate is now one of the newer affiliates for the organization. Having been here for only a couple of years. How are they doing? I can't wait to share. Lorraine Lomelino, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Thank you so much for having me. 

Jeff Holden: We're excited to have you here because you're one of the relatively new organizations to Sacramento a little over two years now with Best Buddies here.

I'm not sure most people know what you are because you are relatively new, but you certainly have some big names behind the organization. Would you walk us through the genesis of the program and how it came to be? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Best Buddies, we are an international non profit. We are just getting our awareness raised [00:05:00] here in the Sacramento area.

But originally, Best Buddies was founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver in 1989. He saw how his aunt, Rosemary Kennedy, was being treated a little bit differently because of her disabilities, and it really impacted him. So, On his college campus of Georgetown University, he started the first friendship component of this organization.

So he, he was on a mission to make his peers with an intellectual and developmental disability feel just as welcomed and supported by friends as their peers without an intellectual disability. So yeah, he started Friendship Chapter on his college campus and just created a lot of inclusion opportunities for friendship.

Jeff Holden: And kind of the rest is history as it just continued to. Yeah. And if I'm not mistaken, when Governor Schwarzenegger was active in his term, Maria Shriver was involved in individuals with disabilities as well, right? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Oh yes, very much so. 

Jeff Holden: As far as the program itself, you [00:06:00] mentioned intellectual disabilities.

And developmental disabilities. What might that look like? Who might that be? 

Lorraine Lomolino: We serve a very large population of individuals with an intellectual or developmental disability. Definitely not limited to, but including autism, fragile X, traumatic brain injuries. So many different diagnoses, you know, we, we help to serve.

Jeff Holden: And the people that you work with most are more or less functional in society. They can, they can adapt. Their disability just is significant enough to make that a bit challenging or difficult. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, yeah. I, I think our society unfortunately does overlook a lot of individuals who have some sort of disability.

Intellectual or developmental disabilities. We refer to it as IDD. It's a little bit quicker to say, but yeah, these individuals with IDD are usually not given as many opportunities as their peers without an IDD and they get overlooked for friendship. They get overlooked for employment [00:07:00] and getting to know this group of this group of our community.

They are some of the most fantastic, passionate, intelligent, intelligent, People you will ever meet. And so our organization really aims to give them an equal chance to be seen, to make a friend, to get a job, and yeah, it's life changing for them, really. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah, I can imagine for the families as well who have worked so hard to do what they can to get either their child or student or even the adult integrated and find somebody who accepts them for what they are.

We work with, you know, So many unique organizations in the community that do what they can, I think they cross over in some way, shape, or form. In terms of the organization itself, it's built around these, these five pillars. Would you identify what they are for us? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, so our first pillar was of course the friendship chapter, or the friendship pillar.

This really does bridge, you know, the gap between an individual with IDD [00:08:00] and making a friend. We also have our jobs pillar, which we work to find meaningful employment for our participants. We work with them closely to, to ensure that they're placed into a meaningful job where their skills shine and the employer.

Gains an amazing skilled employee from from our pillar 82 percent of individuals with an IDD don't have a paid job in our community. And so we are Working to reduce that and 

Jeff Holden: and we have a workplace shortage for the most part yet There's 82 percent of these people who are capable that just haven't had the access or the opportunity 

Lorraine Lomolino: Exactly, exactly.

And like I said, yeah, this this this Population does often get overlooked and maybe just prejudged without ever having the opportunity to have the employer delve farther and look at their resume and have that interview with them and then come to see like, wow, this is an amazing person with great skills, fantastic employee.[00:09:00] 

So we're working to open that opportunity. 

Jeff Holden: I don't think we covered all the pillars yet, I got you, I interjected something in there, so keep going. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Sure, sure. And then we have our, um, our leadership pillar. This really helps to strengthen public speaking skills and self advocacy for individuals with and without an IDD to really go out into the community and vouch for themselves and advocate for themselves through being strong public speakers.

We have our living facilities pillar, which brings together individuals with and without IDD. into a living environment, whether that's a single family home or apartment spaces, and we do have a manager, a support team on location for these living facilities, but it's a really great way for our participants to gain life skills and learn from each other and cook and really interact in an independent living environment.

Our newest pillar is family support, which is an amazing resource for expecting parents or parents who have recently welcomed a [00:10:00] child with an IDD into their family. We match them with a more experienced family who has a child with an IDD and it works as like a great resource and support sharing dynamic.

Jeff Holden: And if I'm not mistaken, three of the pillars are fully implemented in Sacramento. We don't have a living facility yet and the family support services is new as well. It's not here yet. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Correct. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. Yours is an organization started nationally and you would look something like an affiliate, not unlike a big brothers, big sisters, or, or girl scouts to where your actions are actually supported.

in effect by the, the parents, so to speak. What's the relationship with home office, if that's the right thing? How are you structured? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Sure, yeah. We're, our headquarters is out of Miami. We are opening office locations as much as we can as soon as people see what we do and our, our awareness hits a market.

Everybody wants to. jump [00:11:00] on board and get involved with these programs. So we open office locations around the country, around the world. Sacramento is relatively new. We've been in this area for about two and a half years, but we're seeing incredible growth. The people of our community really want to get involved and we've, we've been growing pretty quickly.

Jeff Holden: And I imagine in some cases, a family with a child or a student with IDD, if it's not severe enough, they don't fall into one set of programs, yet they don't want to put a child or a student, even a young adult, who's with more capable into a lesser space. They don't need that much care or that much service.

They'd rather get them into the ability to be more functional and more integrated into whatever the role is, if it's school or if it's work or independent living. So I can see the need where those individuals and or those parents, those families are, are stuck somewhere in between looking for something like what you provide.

We have other organizations [00:12:00] that handle the more severe cases. And Your's is, is somewhere on the outskirts of that tour, not quite that deep, but more on the fully integrating side. So how do they get there? How does one find out about you? How does somebody with a child or a student or an adult living at home with IDD know you exist?

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, we have a few great paths to awareness in the community. And I think that. Especially for a younger demographic, there are a lot of programs, there are a lot of supports available, but let's say after that child graduates high school, there's really not as much support readily available through other programs.

So, you know, an organization like ours really comes in handy. And offers some life changing opportunities for that next step of that individual's life. Whether it's finding a job and supporting themselves when maybe other support that they're receiving from other organizations has run out. [00:13:00] We, we do a lot of word of mouth.

Opportunities like, like this podcast help us so much because everybody knows a friend or a family member who knows somebody who could use a friend, a job, leadership, training. So really, our word of mouth is huge here in the Sacramento area. 

Jeff Holden: And you've touched on a couple of things in, as we were talking prior to recording, even.

I think when you got here, there were maybe only a handful of schools. Now you're in 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, now, now we have friendship programs opened within 22 schools in the Sacramento area. And these are, you know, really, I mean, life changing opportunities for individuals who maybe have never had a friend before and finally being seen for the first time and somebody caring about them, calling them on the phone.

I speak to too many of our participants where that was the first time that they've ever had a friend, the first time anybody's ever called them to ask how their day was. And I think I'm getting a little teary eyed. I think a lot of us can take that component of life [00:14:00] for granted. So when you see it in action through our programs and just realizing how this should be This should just be the normal of our society, really fuels our fire to keep going and expand.

Jeff Holden: I feel that as well when you think about somebody who's never even had 16, years old. Somebody actually calls them to see, how are you doing? Yeah. How was school today? How was work? You mentioned a couple of other things. ties into collaboration. Who are some of the organizations that you, you work with?

Certainly the high schools, and I would imagine school districts are important to you, but, but who else? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the school, anybody who has a connection with a school district, please get us in contact with them. But for like our jobs program, we partner with amazing local employers to name a few, Goodwill, Accenture.

The Sacramento Children's Museum, really just to name a few, we have so many more. Also, UC Davis Medical Center is now, has taken four of our participants as [00:15:00] interns to get them prepped and trained for the jobs program. So the support from the community and the employers in the community has been fantastic.

Jeff Holden: How many individuals with IDD are you working with at this point? 

Lorraine Lomolino: We have, we have quite a large pool. We have between 20 to 24 individuals who are currently waiting for a friend. So we really need to get the word out to say, Hey, if you can volunteer some of your time, become a friend to one of our participants, we know it's going to be so impactful for both parties involved.

And often, you know, even though it's just like a one or two year commitment, these naturally blossom into lifelong friendships. Peace. 

Jeff Holden: I can imagine. Yeah. You know, once you have that relationship with somebody over the course of a couple of years, going through the struggles and the challenges and the successes that they see over the course of time, it's, it's like a parent to a child in some cases, or, you know, a best friend, a best buddy.

Let's take a break before we get back into [00:16:00] the success stories of Best Buddies with Lorraine Lomalino, right after this from the people who make this program possible. I was in the media business for over 35 years and had the great privilege of working with Runyon Saltzman RSE, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations.

We collaborated on many different campaigns, but their commitment to the non profit sector hasn't changed since their founder Gene Runyon started the agency. Over many years and many campaigns, Runyon Saltzman has been committed to improving lives by tackling California's most challenging issues, guided by research informed strategies and insightful, creative solutions.

RSE develops innovative communications campaigns that raise awareness, educate, and reduce stigma in diverse communities throughout our state and beyond. To learn more about RSE, visit rs e. org. 

Scott Thomas: Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CapTrust in our Sacramento office. I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations.

Annually, we [00:17:00] survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments. If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, scottthomasatcaptrust.

com. 

Jeff Holden: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many non profit agencies in our community. As a truly local health plan, you'll find individual and family options, employer options, plans for CalPERS and Medicare Advantage, From medical services to pharmacy, health and wellness support, as well as behavioral health care, Western Health Advantage has a plan that fits what you need.

As an employer, for profit or non profit business, individual or family, you can find more at WesternHealth. com. What does success look like for the people that you work with? [00:18:00] 

Lorraine Lomolino: Oh man, it's It's really amazing to see our participants coming into our programs, maybe feeling a little unsure, you know, it's kind of a new endeavor for them for the most part.

And their success is when they make that friend and their confidence and their enthusiasm and their public speaking skills, their self advocacy just blossoms and flourishes. And you see this person just feeling so sure about themselves and really feeling like a valued member of society. That's. It's an amazing, and in my mind, I think that's success.

Jeff Holden: Well that confidence, it just comes from the ability to be able to go out into the community and present yourself. Yeah, 

Lorraine Lomolino: yeah. And earn, you know, earn a living wage at a job you're passionate about and really feeling seen and heard. 

Jeff Holden: And that's the part I think many of us at times forget that goals, dreams, aspirations are all the same regardless of whether you're an individual [00:19:00] with IDD or not.

You still have something you'd like to accomplish and whether people recognize it or not is the significant part and if they're willing to support you in that. When it comes to the individuals themselves, the people that you actually work with, they're important. Starting out with basically nothing, they don't have these skills, yet.

They have to get some place somehow, some way, and I'm sure the, the buddy is supportive of that. But you also have organizations that help with coaching them and helping them with their interview process. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, yeah, of course. So while our staff, you know, do a lot, we definitely need the volunteers of other companies and organizations to assist us.

Like just for example, Rayleigh's has been very supportive. They do mock job interviews with our participants to really get our participants feeling comfortable with the process. You know, get their [00:20:00] feet wet with how that's going to feel when they're in the real interview. So having companies and individuals open their, open their doors to expand the experiences that our participants can have is hugely beneficial.

Jeff Holden: And I want to compliment Rayleigh's because people where you're sitting, Tell me, so many times, Raley's, Raley's, Raley's, it's not just food, having that corporate headquarters here, having a company that's been originated and born and raised and grown in Sacramento, contributes so much to so many, I want to shout out to them too, just to say thank you, because it is that big.

When you mentioned Your people. How many of your people are there and what does that look like? How many employees, cadre of volunteers? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Well, I mean, thankfully, just over the last couple of months, we have grown from an office. We started out an office of two individuals working for Best Buddies, myself and my co [00:21:00] worker, and then now we're up to six employees in our area, and we support the three pillars we have as well as the interns at UC Davis Medical Center.

We wear a lot of hats, so. 

Jeff Holden: Well, two to six is exponential growth. That's big. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, our programs and our Our participants involvement and our signature events that are bringing in all of these attendees have really facilitated our growth. We see the the desire from our community to expand what we have to offer.

Jeff Holden: That leads to the next question. Funding. How is the organization funded? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Our local Sacramento office, we do receive some government funding. We also have two signature fundraisers each year. One happens in the springtime, which is our friendship walk. And then one happens in the fall, which is our champion of the year campaign.

And then we have a great gala celebration and those bring in a good amount of our revenue. 

Jeff Holden: And if I'm not mistaken, your overall budget is somewhere around a half a million dollars. 

Lorraine Lomolino: For our [00:22:00] Sacramento office, that's correct. 

Jeff Holden: With the majority of that coming from those two events? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, and, and, you know, the government funding, also individual donations, corporate, corporate giving is huge.

We would love to expand that in our area. To diversify our revenue streams is super vital. 

Jeff Holden: Mm hmm. Is there any necessary contribution for the families of the buddies? 

Lorraine Lomolino: For our friendship programs, no, no. But we do work with the Alter Regional Center as a client. So the ins and outs of the finances from those departments aren't exactly my forte, but I could get you that information.

Jeff Holden: I appreciate that. If anybody wants to, I'm sure they can reach out through you, to you, through the website. And we'll post that in the show notes afterwards. If money were no object, and you didn't have the Necessity of this budget. What might Sacramento best buddies look like? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Oh, man. The, the next huge goal on our horizon is to open a living, a living facility here in Northern [00:23:00] California.

We know that the, the want is there, but the funding is, it's a lofty amount to get that up and running, 

Jeff Holden: but if there's no budget and money's no object, oh yes, we're, we're gonna build a facility for beautiful, 

Lorraine Lomolino: beautiful living facility. And I would say. all of the awareness we could possibly buy with an unlimited amount of money.

Once the awareness is there and people know we're here and they're getting involved, I know that the funding will flow after that. 

Jeff Holden: So this is kind of a snowball effect. You start with six schools, you're up to 22 schools. Before you know it, it'll be 30, 40, 50 schools that have the integrated program.

Those children, students, IDD buddies are now talking about it. And it expands and, you know, it becomes exponential as it compounds itself. In a couple of years, if you've gone from zero to where you are today, and we look down the line, are there any examples of maybe other markets that you've seen? And to us, [00:24:00] develop the way that we're developing that you could say, here's what it looks like.

We expect by in terms of where you would like to be in a couple of years. Do you have goals through these? Does the organization set goals for you? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Oh, yes, absolutely. We have the California strategic initiatives that we were trying to accomplish goals and we take those larger picture milestones and we say, okay, what can we do as Sacramento to achieve those larger picture milestones and Yeah, we have an amazing advisory board who is helping us expand into schools.

We need to make connections with more employing companies, more employers, so we can have a unique and diversified pool of employers for our participants to be like, oh, I have this skill set, and here's a great employer that, you know, I would want to work for, but yeah, we have, you know, every year our, our events where we're raising the goal for each event, because we see that we're consistently surpassing our fundraising goal from the year [00:25:00] before, and we're just growing so fast out here.

Jeff Holden: And we're in 2024 as we're doing the interview, if I'm not mistaken, you said your November gala. Is sold out. 

Lorraine Lomolino: We sold out last year, which was our first annual year. We didn't know what to expect. And we said, if we could get 75 people in this room, that would be fantastic. We sold out at 200 with a wait list.

Jeff Holden: From 75 expectation, you sold out at 200. 

Lorraine Lomolino: We did cut it 

Jeff Holden: off 

Lorraine Lomolino: and people were like, okay, put me on the wait list. If anybody, you know, they, people wanted to attend. I'm like, I'm at capacity. Right. And so, you know, this year we've raised our goal a little bit higher and already projecting to surpass that. And.

The passion in Sacramento is just like no other that I've seen before. 

Jeff Holden: That's incredible. I'm, I'm thrilled to hear that because the support for, obviously our, our challenge individuals is it's so necessary in so many different ways. And as we talk to so many different organizations, this is a group of people who are [00:26:00] capable and competent.

And we just had pride industries in here, same situation or very similar situation of, uh, Just the unknowing. People don't know. They're full. I think the number was one individual for every ten jobs. So, the opportunities, I think, for the, you know, awareness and the people, we know they're out there. These capable and competent individuals are out there.

It's just the acceptance by the community and by the employers. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Absolutely. To say, bring them on. Absolutely. I say this in complete, with a complete genuine heart, some of the most interesting and funny individuals I've ever met, I could just talk to for hours, have been our participants. And it's heartbreaking to think that so many people in society will never get to experience them as a friend.

And it's, yeah, just, our work is so important. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and we do know that workplace diversity. In all ways, shapes, and forms, really creates a [00:27:00] better environment. Period. End of story. And when People either with disabilities or of multi ethnicity, different language. The acceptance of all of that in a workplace environment only benefits everybody in the environment.

Even though it may be difficult at first because it's not necessarily expected or even accepted. But once it takes place, I don't know anybody that has said, no, that was a bad idea. Yeah, 

Lorraine Lomolino: exactly. Exactly. 

Jeff Holden: We need, we need more of that. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Now back to reality. What is the greatest need you've got at this point in time?

Lorraine Lomolino: We really need to get the word out as much as we can. With the awareness component, we bring in more, you know, companies who want to hire. We bring in more individuals who want to be a friend. More opportunities for You know, speech coaches and more opportunities for public speaking coaches, and that all comes through volunteers.

And I just know with the awareness component, [00:28:00] we will generate the funding we need to continue to operate. 

Jeff Holden: Schools. I'm, I'm going to go back a second because something just hit me as, as I was thinking about this, the program to the schools, there's, there's no cost to the schools. It's just an integration piece, right?

To where is it other students that become best buddies? 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah. In the 

Jeff Holden: school system. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, it depends on the age. So for maybe elementary school, we would need a faculty member to kind of get involved with help running the on campus chapter. But as you get into the older age groups of like high school, college, it's all student led.

They open this great chapter. You bring in the individuals, the students that have an IDD and the students who don't have an IDD and they. Mix and mingle and form friendships within this amazing school chapter. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. My mind is going a million miles a minute. People that we've had sit in the chair across from me, I'm thinking, Oh, wait a minute.

You need to talk to so and so because they scratched the surface of where you are, but they don't deal [00:29:00] with it. It comes into their organizations. It's just not something that they can satisfy or fulfill. And I, I'm, I mean, the list is going to be voluminous before we get out of here. As I keep thinking of the people that you need to connect with, if you haven't already touched base with them.

That's what we need. Right. What's the best way to get in touch with you? How do we find out more about the organization? 

Lorraine Lomolino: I would urge everybody listening to this, share it with your friends and family. Go to bestbuddies. org forward slash California. It has little overview of our programs and you can fill out interest forms that will direct you to the exact staff member who can tell you more about the process and get you going in the right direction.

And that would be? 

Jeff Holden: www. bestbuddies. org To be involved in a variety of different ways. If I was interested in being a, a, a buddy, I could do that on the website. If I wanted to donate, I could do something on the website. Find out about the events. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Yeah, absolutely. They're all of the opportunities we have to really get involved.

You fill out an interest form, and then [00:30:00] that gets pushed directly to the correct staff member in our area for you. 

Jeff Holden: Wonderful. You know, Lorraine, caring for and supporting those in our community who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, IDD, which is the first time I've heard it professed that way, it's such a necessary requirement.

And keeping some of those most vulnerable not only safe, but engaged, and giving them opportunities is Yeah, sign of a good society. I mean, it's what we should be doing and you guys are fostering that you're helping it and Bringing the awareness to not only the cause of it Literally putting them into paying jobs in many cases and knowing that 82 percent of that population doesn't work yet is perfectly capable and competent of doing something for an income and maybe even independence.

That just blows me away. So thank you for what you do and thanks for the connection to the community and the integration in the community in so many different ways from high [00:31:00] school to employment to you and your team. We applaud that. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Oh man, thank you so much for helping us get our voice out a little farther through your podcast.

Jeff Holden: We hope so, for sure. Yeah, 

Lorraine Lomolino: thank you so much. 

Jeff Holden: Thanks. 

Lorraine Lomolino: Thank you.

Jeff Holden: Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help. If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share.

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