Friends at Home:
Every week, pairs of specially trained teenage volunteers visit children with special-needs at home. These one to two hours visits last go a long way to curing loneliness through board games, stories, music, and child-appropriate play.
|
 |
Children’s Torah Circle:
This program helps to teach children everything from gross motor and cognitive techniques to communication and language skills. Through music, stories, arts and crafts, and opportunities for socialization, children with special needs learn about their beautiful Jewish heritage. |
|
Holiday Programs:
Holidays are a time for family. The Friendship Circle’s innovative activities enable everyone to participate, each at his or her own level. This educating and entertaining approach helps families to connect with their Jewish heritage and the Jewish community at large. |
|
Camp Experiences:
The Friendship Winter and End of Camps offer a brief respite to parents and siblings, while providing campers with special needs the time of their lives. These sessions make learning fun through songs, stories, crafts and other activities.
|
|
Sports Night:
Participating in sports is a great way to build friendships, confidence, and physical health. At Sports Night, volunteers help kids to shoot hoops, kick goals, throw and catch under the watchful eyes of a professional instructor. |
|
Sib shops:
Siblings of children with special needs often have issues. “Sibshops” provide opportunities for brothers and sisters of children with special needs to get together. Between the creative discussions and fun times, siblings can acquire skills that they can use to face their own trying situations. |
|
Life skills:
For a child with special needs, the “outside world” can seem overwhelmingly strange. Under the Life Skills program, teen volunteers and professionals help these children to become comfortable in public places so they can use these facilities with confidence and ease. This, in turn, helps them to become as self-sufficient as possible. |
|
Life Town:
To help make the most of Life Skills program, the Friendship Circle constructed the Meer Family Friendship Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan. It was developed by consulting with a group of parents of children with special needs, therapists, educators and professionals from around the world. The heart of the Friendship Center is the Weinberg Life Village, which gives the children and their friends the opportunity to practice activities such as banking, scheduling and keeping appointments with the salon, dentist or doctor, navigating traffic signals and buying tickets for the 22 seat movie theater. All this is in preparation for their eventual integration into society. Unlike the real world, there is no hurry, and skills can be practiced again and again. Best of all, they have a great time. |
|
| Please note: Friendship Circle programs vary by location. Please contact your local Friendship Circle for details. |
