AT UCLA
BEST BUDDIES
Best Buddies at UCLA is a community service organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities through one-to-one friendships. Since 1990, our chapter has touched the lives of hundreds of students, community members, and people with disabilities. Each year, approximately 50 student applicants are selected and paired in one-to-one friendships with buddies (i.e., individuals with disabilities). These friendships are monitored by Best Buddies at UCLA student staff, and each friendship pair is expected to make weekly telephone contact and participate in twice-monthly individual outings (the nature of which are up to the buddy pair). Best Buddies at UCLA sponsors approximately two chapter events per quarter, which all members are required to attend.
COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMISSION
Since 1965, the Community Service Commission (CSC) has focused its efforts towards creating social change, understanding the greater Los Angeles and Tijuana community, and promoting campus-wide service programming.CSC represents 33 student-run community service projects and over 2,000 students each year, making CSC the largest completely student-run, student-initiated community service organization in the nation. Students work together to tutor youths and adults, address the health needs of ethnic communities, combat poverty and homelessness, and reach out to incarcerated youth and neglected children. CSC projects strive to provide communities with the tools to empower themselves and challenge the structures and barriers that keep them from achieving their goals. The commission also aims to centralize the service efforts of the UCLA campus community through large-scale service programming, Alternative Spring Break, collaborations, and issues awareness.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS
Established in 1979, UCLA Special O continues to be one of the few student-run Special Olympics programs in the country. This program represents a unique opportunity for a wide range of neglected and under-served communities to learn sports in a healthy and fun environment. Special O serves roughly 45 developmentally disabled individuals on its practice roster, most of whom come from impoverished communities in South Central Los Angeles and are primarily from minority and Latino and African-American populations. For UCLA students, Special O widens their perspective on the world, encouraging positive interaction with those who have developmental disabilities.