Our Mission
We integrate the disabled into the nondisabled community
We have come a long way in including developmentally disabled youth with nondisabled peers, but the same cannot be said about adults. When programs do exist for disabled adults, they are almost never mixed in with the nondisabled community, except for the semiprofessionals who work with them and who are not really their peers. Friend in Need aims to change this by having nondisabled young people spend time with disabled people of all ages and integrating the disabled not only with the young people, but with their peers and families so that they will be well integrated into mainstream society.
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We right a wrong that many disabled have faced
If you are disabled, you likely have faced a lot of exclusion. This includes exclusion from jobs, exclusion from certain places, and exclusion from community. The exclusion began in one's school years when many disabled, especially the developmentally disabled, were forced into special education settings that separated them from mainstream society and where the strong compassionate students who were in regular classes and could have served them well were almost never present. When the disabled were placed in regular classes, they were often forced into lower quality public schools and were ostracized and excluded from having the good social experiences accorded to their nondisabled peers. Even if these things happened a long time ago, the victims are often still hurt by it to this day. This type of exclusion lasts a LIFETIME. In our age segregated society if one is denied something accorded to youth when one is a youth, that person will be denied that as an adult simply because the person is now older. Friend in Need aims to challenge this mindset by letting these adults who were segregated from society as youth spend time with other youth now, provided they do so in a way that is positive for both the youth and the disabled adult.
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We teach people compassion and tolerance
We teach these things to youth so that it will stick with them and that they become better citizens once they are adults. We also teach adults these things. When people see the nondisabled and disabled having strong positive interactions with each other everyone is likely to become more compassionate and tolerant.
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We provide a good, fun, and rewarding volunteer opportunity
And also serve as a training ground for anyone who wants to go into nursing or the care professions, or who just wants to work with others in a meaningful way.
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We aim to give lasting support and community to people in need
When people bond with children and teenagers in a positive way, they also bond with their parents and other family members. If the bond is strong enough and the family is caring, this will translate into meaningful support. This is very important for developmentally disabled people who will never get married and have children of their own and who cannot rely solely on aging parents for support.
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Too often the disabled are denied being around other children
People tend to like children, but the disabled all too often never get the opportunity to be around other children. Autistic people with sensory overload issues might not want to raise noisy little children and be around them 24/7 but may still want to be around the more mature children if they are not with them all the time. Many disabled people do have the capacity to raise children, but they are all too often taken away from them, and much more often than they are taken away from nondisabled parents. The disabled are also often turned down from jobs that involve working with children. Much of this is done in the name of protecting children. While protecting children is very important, it can be done without discriminating against the disabled. The disabled are not any worse with children or more dangerous to them than the general population. On the contrary, the developmentally disabled may be better with them. By often being childlike in some ways, they are more on the child's level. By not having as much of an ability to manipulate, they are less dangerous to children than the general population.
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