Best Buddies Türkiye
Best Buddies Türkiye
Best Buddies Türkiye builds one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) — in schools, in workplaces and online. We are the accredited Best Buddies chapter in Türkiye, operating under Güzel İşler Derneği.
Why this work matters here
In Türkiye only 6–7% of working-age people with disabilities are in formal employment — one of the lowest rates in the OECD. Isolation starts long before the job market: at school, in the neighbourhood, in everyday social life. Friendship is where inclusion becomes real, and it is where we start.
Our message is deliberately narrow: at Best Buddies, two people become friends. Not charity, not assistance. We measure ourselves by how many friendships are still standing at the end of the academic year.
What we do
One-to-One Friendship
Builds friendships between people with and without IDD, offering social mentoring while improving quality of life and level of inclusion. Programmes run in middle schools, high schools, universities, the wider community, and online through e-Buddies.
Integrated Employment
Secures jobs for people with IDD, allowing them to earn an income, pay taxes and support themselves. We look beyond the roles in which a person with IDD is typically placed, and seek work that matches the job seeker's interests and talents.
Leadership Development
Educates and empowers people with and without IDD to become leaders, public speakers and advocates — through the Ambassadors and Promoters programmes.
Inclusive Living
Fosters an integrated living experience for people with and without IDD, supporting independent living, lasting relationships and opportunities for professional growth.
How a match works
A participant with IDD is matched with a peer without IDD for a friendship of at least one academic year. Matches are never made by lottery: we use the same universal criteria applied across the movement — age, gender, place of residence and shared interests.
The commitment is explicit and we state it before anyone signs up: meet face to face twice a month, stay in contact once a week, for one academic year. Everyone in the programme is responsible for themselves; this is not a guardianship or care programme. Being clear about the commitment up front is how we keep matches alive.
Current flagship project
Empowerment and Future Readiness Program, with Fundación MAPFRE. The programme prepares 240 students with IDD across roughly twelve schools in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir and Bodrum for the workplace: interactive workshops on CV writing, interview preparation and communication; mock interviews; mentoring; internships; and a Mentoring Day hosted at MAPFRE offices.
Partners and supporters
Fundación MAPFRE · Penti · İBB Şehir Hatları · Best Buddies International
What we are building
Our matching and messaging platform is in development. It is designed around a principle we hold to: the system prepares, people decide. It filters candidates by age, gender, completed training and eligibility, ranks them by shared interests and proximity, and presents a shortlist to a coordinator — with the reason for every suggestion visible on the row. The final match is always made by a person.
The platform also carries the safeguarding rules the programme needs: contact details and social media handles cannot be exchanged inside messages, flagged conversations reach a moderation queue, and silence in a pair triggers a check-in before the friendship quietly ends.
Contact
Güzel İşler Derneği — Best Buddies Türkiye Barbaros Mah. Mescitaltı Sok. No: 14, 35700 Bergama / İzmir, Türkiye [email protected] · +90 232 632 73 71
Instagram: @BestBuddiesTR · @guzelislerder