Friendship Circle offers innovative respite, social, and recreational programs for people with special needs and families with the help of teen volunteers. It is LifeTown's mission to create a center for therapeutic services and life-skills training to: • Engage children and teens, including those with special needs, in a thoroughly enriching experience through extensive recreational, educational and therapeutic programs. • Develop independence for people with disabilities through role-play in Life Village – a real-life town-square. • Be a resource for special-education schools throughout the Tri-State area. • Bring families who have children and teens with special needs out of isolation, into an inclusive setting and greater involvement in the general community and to provide them with much needed respite and support. • Motivate, inspire and enrich teen and adult volunteers through sharing of themselves with others.