Lesson 1:  What are Sibshops?

Back to: Sibshops Facilitator Training

Welcome! We are glad you’re here. Our first order of business is to introduce the Sibshops team and share some information about the Sibshops model.

Sibshops are the original recreation and peer support program for siblings of children with support needs.

Sibshops provide school-age siblings (ages 8-to-13) of kids with developmental and health care needs with peer support and information in a lively, recreational setting.

Sibshops are not therapy. However, there are many therapeutic benefits for siblings who participate in them.

For the adults who run them and for the agencies that sponsor them, Sibshops are evidence of their loving concern for the family member who will have the longest-lasting relationship with a person who has a disability.  

For parents of children with disabilities, Sibshops are opportunities for their typically developing kids to have a space and community of their own.

And for the kids who attend them? Sibshops are lively, pedal-to-the-metal events where they:

• Meet other siblings of kids with support needs
  (very often for the first time).
• Have fun.
• Talk about the good and not-so-good parts of having a sib with support needs with others who “get it.”
• Play some great games.
• Explore how other siblings handle sticky situations that may come with the territory of having a brother or sister with support needs.
• Eat some junky – we mean, healthy – food!
• Laugh.
• Learn about different disabilities and support needs, and the services their brothers and sisters, and other children, may receive.
• Laugh (again).
• When we can’t think of anything else to do, we have some more fun!

But don’t just take our word for it. This 6-minute video features Anya and her family, who talk about what Sibshops means to them.

Sibshops exist in almost every U.S. state and in almost 30 other countries around the world. Sibshops succeed across different settings because they are based on two universal languages: shared experience, and play.

In Sibshops, we are unapologetically playful.

Everything we do in Sibshops is fun – even discussion activities. We don’t want Sibshops to be, for kids, the programmatic equivalent of spinach: “Here kid, have some! It’s good for you!” Yuck.

Instead, we want Sibshops to be so much fun that kids can’t wait to return for the next one.

Up next: Five reasons to support siblings.