A Message about COVID-19
Dear Friends, Isolation is a familiar feeling and unfortunate reality for many siblings of people with special developmental, health and mental health concerns. In her book, “A Difference in the Family,” Helen Featherstone, the mother of a child significantly impacted by disabilities, recognizes the isolation of sibs. "In dealing with the wider world of friends, classmates and teachers,” she writes, typically developing siblings “can feel painfully different." Today, in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of us feel isolated from our friends, extended family members, colleagues and communities. We feel the loss of the people, places, and routines that filled our daily lives. We are challenged to find new ways to learn, work, connect and play in an unpredictable environment. From Isolation to Community Our mission at the Sibling Support Project remains the same as when Don Meyer founded the program in 1990: To provide brothers and sisters of people with disabilities opportunities for information, support, and connection with each other. Today, as a proud program of Kindering, we support siblings through more than 550 Sibshops across the U.S. and in 16 countries around the world. We publish books and articles, facilitate online groups for teens and adults, and promote understanding of siblings and how to support them through podcasts, webinars, workshops and trainings. At the heart of our work is the belief that siblings are special, too, and the knowledge that we are better together. Redefining Together The global COVID-19 pandemic now challenges all of us to redefine – and find new ways of – being together. Sibshops across the country and around the world that usually provide in-person gatherings that young siblings look forward to, sometimes for weeks, are innovating to connect. Creative facilitators from Boston to Buenos Aires are using [...]