Tricia Williams, Regional Director – Palm Beach, Best Buddies International

Best Buddies International is committed to offering more opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). “You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company. You don’t have to be as large as Jersey Mike’s Subs or Sky Zone to hire someone with a disability,” said Regional Director Tricia Williams to Invest:.

What have been the main highlights and achievements of Best Buddies during the last year?
One of the achievements that we’ve had this year is really being able to home in on strengthening some of our programs. We are in 40 schools across Palm Beach County and also in two other counties, Martin County and Saint Lucie County. Our goal there was to make sure that we had programs that were strong in friendships. Our basis is creating those social experiences for people with IDD.
To be able to do that, our model is one-to-one friendships for people with and without disabilities. We continue to strengthen our student population by making sure that these friendships are genuine. We’ve been working hard on that. Another great accomplishment is our fundraising efforts.
This year, we were able to raise enough money to launch Best Buddies Living — one of our independent living programs — here in Palm Beach County in 2025. This program allows individuals with disabilities the opportunity to live independently in a dynamic, integrated environment where they can learn, grow, and thrive with their peers.

How is your jobs program progressing?
Our transition program is designed to help students who are starting to learn new skills to be able to move on to the next area in their lives. This includes being able to learn how to interview and dress the part for a job interview, in addition to filling out an application. We are doing that right now in three different schools.
This year we partnered with some of the other local nonprofits that focus on our community of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We did have one cohort that was able to create an incubator for their own candle-making business. They were able to do that successfully, and it gave the students the confidence to know that they could become entrepreneurs.

How does your organization work towards establishing new and long-lasting partnerships with the business community?
There are a couple of different ways that you could connect with us. One of the ways to do this is by utilizing your marketing dollars to get more exposure to our community. Many families use our services, and they’re very loyal to whoever utilizes Best Buddies.
Another way to partner would be to make sure that you’re thinking about being an employer and opening up their doors to an inclusive workforce with candidates who are talented, and qualified but unfortunately currently under-employed. On a national level, we just partnered with Sky Zone and Jersey Mike’s Subs, and we have one of our Best Buddies Jobs participants currently employed with Sky Zone in Boynton Beach who is doing a fantastic job.
You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company or as large as Jersey Mike’s Subs or Sky Zone to hire someone with a disability. You might be a small business owner who could use an extra hand with smaller tasks. By hiring someone from our talented pool of Jobs program participants, you’re not only lightening your load but also empowering them with the independence they seek, allowing them to contribute meaningfully to our community.

Can you comment on the Palm Beach fundraising strategy?
We recently hosted the Best Buddies Palm Beach gala where we were able to raise the funds needed to start the Best Buddies Living program in 2025.. Our goal was to raise about $400,000 to be able to make sure that that program gets off the ground next year.
The community rallied around us, and we raised over $473,000, which is the most that we’ve raised since this gala has been in the Palm Beach area. Those funds are helping us to expand. Not only are we able to start this independent living program, but we’re also looking forward to strengthening what we’re doing in our schools.

How have you seen the county support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities?
I am really excited to see that there are programs that are coming online that are helping, and it helps to support what we do. For instance, we have our public transportation system and Palm Tran connections doing a better job of picking up our program participants on time and getting them to where they need to go since not all of our population is able to drive themselves.
I’m very happy to be a part of the Inclusion Task Force with the city of Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach is a great example of making sure that they’re more inclusive. I also know that there are some nonprofits who are doing other integrated living programs in different parts of the county and starting to build brick and mortar locations.

What is the outlook for Best Buddies over the next half of a decade?
Best Buddies founder Anthony K. Shriver has lots of great ideas going forward for the organization. Among the organization’s top goals include expanding our footprint globally, establishing strategic partnerships to create meaningful job opportunities for individuals with disabilities, launching new friendship programs in schools and communities that have not yet benefited from our services, increasing job training and placement services to help more participants secure fulfilling jobs and earn a sustainable income, launching new Best Buddies Living residences, and continuing to strengthen our family support services to equip families with the resources and guidance needed to navigate the journey of raising a child with IDD.
I would love to see us be able to be in nearly every single school in Palm Beach County, so that every school has an opportunity to have their students with and without a disability, truly work together in the general population of the schools that would change the campus. It’s one thing to see a student sitting by themselves. And It’s another thing to see him or her surrounded by friends of all different abilities cheering them on.
Immediately I think about the quarterback for Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School — Caleb Butler. He’s been a part of Best Buddies’ since he was in elementary school, and is actively working to make sure that he’s got a great club on site. He’s been covered in the local news.
I’d love to have his efforts modeled across school campuses everywhere. I’d also really like to see us replicate the success we’ve achieved here in Palm Beach County into the other four counties that surround us: Okeechobee County, Martin County, Saint Lucie County, and Indian River County.