Free Peer Community for Kids with Disabilities & Families | Friendship Circle
Friendship Circle is a network of more than 80 Jewish nonprofit chapters across the United States and internationally that pair teen volunteers with children, teens, and young adults with disabilities for ongoing peer friendship and community. Each chapter runs weekly home visits, group programs, holiday celebrations, sibling support groups, mom and dad groups, and family events — building a peer community where children with disabilities and their families are not alone, and where typically developing teens learn to be lifelong allies and friends.
What to Expect
Friendship Circle’s flagship program pairs trained teen volunteers with children and young adults with developmental, intellectual, or physical disabilities for weekly Friends at Home visits — building one-on-one peer friendships that often last years. Chapters also run group programs (Sunday Circle, Cooking Club, Music Therapy, Sports, Holiday Workshops), sibling support groups for typically developing siblings, parent support gatherings for mothers and fathers raising children with disabilities, and full-family events that bring everyone together. Programming is grounded in Jewish values of inclusion and dignity, with each chapter shaped by its local community.
Who This Group Is For
Friendship Circle serves children, teens, and young adults with disabilities and their families — including parents, siblings, grandparents, and extended family. Volunteer teens come from the broader Jewish (and often non-Jewish) community. Chapters welcome families across the Jewish spectrum — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, secular, mixed-faith — and are intentional about being accessible to families of all economic means. While the program is rooted in Jewish community, many chapters serve non-Jewish families as well.
Why Peer Support Works
For children and young adults with disabilities, sustained peer friendship can be the most meaningful intervention available — and is often the hardest to access. Friendship Circle creates those friendships intentionally and supports them long-term. For parents and siblings, the chapter community becomes a steady place where the family’s full experience is understood without explanation. Mothers describe Friendship Circle’s mom groups as the place they can finally talk honestly; siblings describe its sibling groups as the first time they met other kids who get it.
How to Join
Friendship Circle programs are free. Visit friendshipcircle.com or friendshipcircle.org to find the closest chapter and learn about local programming. With 80+ chapters across the U.S. and internationally, most Jewish population centers have a chapter nearby. Families and teen volunteers can sign up through the local chapter website. New families are welcomed warmly and matched into programming that fits their child’s age, needs, and interests.