Sibshops

"According to the Sibling Support Project, of the over 4.5 million people in the United States who have health, developmental, and mental health concerns, most have typically developing siblings. Throughout their lives, siblings share many of the concerns that parents of children with support needs experience, including isolation, a need for information, guilt, concerns about the future, and caregiving demands. Siblings also face issues that are uniquely theirs including resentment, peer issues, embarrassment, and pressure to achieve. As parents focus on meeting the needs of their child with support needs, siblings can be unintentionally overlooked and left out. Sibshops programs help to change this by providing school-age siblings of children with various health, mental health, and developmental needs opportunities to obtain peer support and education within a highly recreational context. The goals of the Sibshop model are to provide siblings with opportunities to: Meet other siblings in a relaxed, recreational setting Discuss common joys and concerns with other siblings Learn how other handle situations commonly experienced by siblings Learn more about the implications of their sibling's special needs Learn more about the concerns and opportunities frequently experienced by siblings Essential for agencies that serve families of children with disabilities, social workers, parent-to-parent programs, early intervention programs, developmental disability councils, child life specialists, and parents, Sibshop offers an inexpensive and easy-to-implement solution to addressing siblings' needs in a way everyone can enjoy. Highly practical and user-friendly, the Sibshops Workbook provides the information needed to start, fund, and run a Sibshop and is filled with straightforward instructions, photocopiable forms, more than 100 fun games and activities. "--