In conjunction with Jewish Disability Awareness Month, local teen volunteers for the Friendship Circle have kicked off the “Friends4Friends” campaign.
The teens have mobilized their classmates at public, private and Jewish high schools in the Bay Area to spread the word, through education and advocacy, about building an inclusive community.
“Our teen [volunteers] are empowered by the friendships they have developed with individuals with disabilities,” said Miryum Mochkin, director of Friendship Circle of San Francisco. “They understand how important and necessary it is to include students of all abilities in their social circles.”
Friendship Circle is a national Chabad program that aims to create an inclusive Jewish community for children who have special needs and their families. The program pairs teen volunteers with children with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, visual impairments and other conditions, and flourishing friendships generally result.
In honor of Jewish Disability Awareness Month, the Contemporary Jewish Museum invited the Friendship Circle to take a sensory-friendly tour of one of its exhibits, as it has for the last three years.
On Feb. 17, 25 people toured “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats.” The group, which included six families, Friendship Circle staff and volunteers, started the outing with a picnic on the lawn outside the museum.
“The CJM reaching out and inviting us to their space to experience ‘A Snowy Day’ was an incredible community gesture of inclusion,” Mochkin said.
For more information on Friendship Circle and the Friends4Friends campaign, visit www.bayareafc.org or www.beafriendsf.org, or contact Mochkin at (415) 624-7192.