Friendship Circle

Learning Real Life Skills

2,500 students visit Friendship Circle's Weinberg Village annually to learn life skills. Complete with a mock village students are responsible to complete tasks that include street safety, time management, money management and a number of other skills. To learn more visit www.friendshipcircle.org

You mean we can really get our nails done at the Beauty Salon? Do we really get to keep what we buy at the drug store? Do we get real money at the bank? Whenever we have a new group of students at LifeTown these questions invariably come up. After five and a half years, these questions still impress me and make me realize how seriously the students take their visits here. I remember one time a couple of years ago when a mother called after her son came home from school.  He told his mother that he had seen a “dentist” that day and had a check-up. Of course, she was confused (and a little upset) until we explained the workings of our real-life Village. As the Educational Director at The Friendship Circle, I have had the privilege of meeting thousands of students from all over the Detroit Metro area. Their excitement and energy are what make my job one that I look forward to each day. It makes me realize that we are providing an experience where REAL things happen, including running out of money before you get to do everything you want to do! It’s called “natural consequences” and sometimes it’s a lesson not so easily learned. I feel we have an obligation to make sure that each one of the students leaves Weinberg Village having learned at least ONE life lesson that will carry over to school or home. Maybe it’s realizing that you can’t leave a wallet with money lying around or someone will take it…or if you don’t pay attention to the time you will miss the movie at the Theater (after you’ve already bought the ticket)…or if you miss your appointment at the Salon you may not be able to get another one. These are situations I’m sure we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives and learned a valuable lesson from…after all, practice makes perfect.