The Friendship Circle
“Friendship Circle is founded upon the idea that within each person is a soul; and that soul is equal and worthy of boundless love. With this inspiration, the lives of the families we serve are enhanced while the volunteers reap the rewards of selfless giving.”
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The Friendship circle was founded in 1994. It started with 8 families and 16 volunteers. Since then, it has grown to have more than 250 families, 800 volunteers, and over 2,500 students from schools around the Metro Detroit area visit yearly. Since 2001 Friendship Circles have been started in over 80 locations in 22 states and 7 Countries.
Program Description
Size of Staff
Although there are many Friendship Circles all over the world, I will be focusing on the West Bloomfield, Michigan location. Currently, there are over 30 amazing staff members. The organization also has a highly dedicated team of 24 professionals with varying backgrounds and experience. This board works hard to uphold The Friendship Circle values and the mission to create strong bonds of friendship and further grow our community.
Community Demographics
Friendship Circle provides assistance and support to 3,000 individuals with special needs and their families by providing recreational, social, educational and vocational programming.
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Facts about Autism Spectrum Disorder
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In the 2017-2018 school year, 20,595 students met eligibility as a student with ASD and were enrolled in Michigan schools (Michigan Department of Education).
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1 in 59 children in the United State has ASD (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
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ASD is about 4 times more common among boys than among girls (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
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ASD occurs in all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
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63% of parents reported their child with ASD had been bullied (National Autism Association).
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Resources
Many resources are available for students and families at The Friendship Circle. For example, counseling for parents and families, resource groups, babysitting, and educational seminars. Curriculum, staff, and hands-on activities are all provided during their programs for participants.
Goal
The goal of The Friendship Circle "is to provide every individual with special needs the support friendship and inclusion that they deserve."
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One of the specific programs I want to evaluate is the "Lessons For Life" program. This is a ground-breaking skills program. "Research continues to prove that students have a higher rate of success in comprehension skills when taught in a true-to-life setting. This is especially true for students with disabilities who are in need of alternative forms of education."
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The Lessons For Life program enables teachers to use Friendship Circle’s cityscape, known as Weinberg Village, as their classroom to provide real life learning experiences, teach life skills in a safe environment, and allow them to interact as if they would in the real world. This specific idea of providing opportunities to learn important life skills is needed in my school district and very important for my demographic of students.
Lessons For Life
Previous Program Evaluations
The only program evaluation I could find on The Friendship Circle was conducted in 2017 on their dance program. The findings concluded that the program was a success for these students.
Purpose For My Evaluation
For my program evaluation, I have decided to evaluate the non-profit organization called, “The Friendship Circle.” This non-profit organization is near and dear to my heart. After mentoring a student with special needs in high school and learning that my friendship and safety saved his life; I knew that becoming a teacher and helping others was the journey for me. While mentoring this student in high school we often went to The Friendship Circle. The success and happiness it created for him was unspeakable.
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Furthermore, my first reason for evaluating this program is to learn more about the interventions and process that is being taken at The Friendship Circle to help students successfully learn these life skills. As a teacher to many students with special needs, I hope gathering more insight on this successful program will help teach me new strategies to transfer into my own classroom. Secondly, as a virtual teacher in this area, many of my students are special needs and I hope that I can refer parents to this organization or dig deeper into their programs in hopes to replicate ideas into our own school.
Evaluation Questions
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How many students successfully transfer out of the “Lessons for Life” program each year?
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How is success being defined or evaluated for this program?
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What type of training do the volunteers go through?
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Do families and students feel they can transition these skills into the real world once they transition out of The Friendship Circle program? What are the positive and negatives of the program?
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What is the average cost to run a program at The Friendship Circle?
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What other local programs are competing with “Lessons for Life?”
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How can this program reach or serve more students and families in the community?
