By Sara Edelman, Justice and Legal Thought
Growing up with a sister with disabilities, due to Autism, I always understood the importance of advocating for those who are born with problems they cannot control. Overall, this experience instilled within me a passion for helping others and promoting justice in this sense.
My service-learning project was conducted while I was studying abroad in Sydney, Australia, and consisted of volunteering at an organization called the Friendship Circle. The main goal of the Friendship Circle is to promote inclusion and opportunity for kids and adults with special needs through numerous activities, educational experiences, and more. Growing up with a sister with disabilities, due to Autism, I always understood the importance of advocating for those who are born with problems they cannot control. Through my courses in JLT, I began to understand that the principle of Justice does not only apply when discussing legal issues but can be applied to many issues, including the exclusion of disabled people from society. The Friendship Circle truly holds by the idea that just because someone is born with a disability, does not mean that they should be treated differently, nor does that mean that they can't be helped in order to further acclimate within society, thereby promoting a kind of social justice. As such, the organization recruits numerous volunteers to establish bonds with these special needs individuals, to not only make them feel included in society but also to teach them important life skills. During my time at the Friendship Circle, I developed close relationships with many of these people with disabilities through numerous activities. On Mondays, I would help run their coding class, which teaches coding and computer skills to children and adults of all ages and caters to all levels of functionality. Additionally, I was in charge of developing recipes and explaining them to the workers of the “Friendship Bakery”, a bakery run entirely by people with special needs. Finally, I would help out at events such as their gymnastics physical education program. Overall, this experience instilled within me a passion for helping others and promoting justice in this sense. I am truly inspired to continue to work with people with special needs and look forward to crafting a research paper on this topic.
This project stood out to me because I also have a special needs family member and I wanted to learn more about Sara's experience. I learned that over 1 billion people in the world are suffering from some form of a disability. I never knew that there were so many people that were going through troubles like my family had. The one question I would like to ask is if The Friendship Circle was planning of expanding to other countries and making this organization bigger. I think if they haven't already they should definitely think about it because it could aid a great deal of people.
Hi, Sara! Your project stood out to me primarily because it was so different than the other ones in your class, but also because I think that the light this project shines on the special needs and disabled community is really important! I was really excited to learn about the different classes that are offered through the Friendship circle along with how big of an impact that it makes. Did you learn anything that you think could help you with a future career? Because you became more involved with this cause while you studied abroad, did you do anything abroad that you wish you could bring to the United States to raise awareness for special needs?
Your project stood out to me because of the direct work you did with people with disabilities. Such work can be inspiring and rewarding and I think it is really great. Your poser taught me about some of the multitude of ways disabled people face struggles globally. You mentioned how such a global problem requires global solutions, and I wonder what you envision such a global solution as?
This sounds like such an incredible experience, and it is great to hear about the connection to JLT through the social justice perspective. I feel like almost everyone knows someone who is dealing with some kind of disability, making it an issue we can all relate to. I was surprised and impressed to see how much the Friendship Circle does to help create a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities. I would be interested to learn more about this organization, and more specifically how one would get involved.
This experience sounds so rewarding and fun to participate in, it's such a great way to spend your study abroad instead of just touring around a different country. It was really interesting to learn about how your personal connection with the issue of equality for those with disabilities was able to be incorporated into your capstone project. What skills or lessons did you learn from this that you can bring to your future career?