Treehouse Tribe Inc.

Description

Treehouse Tribe is a community advocacy group dedicated to social inclusion in the Bay Area. Our main mission is to help foster authentic friendships between children with and without learning differences. We currently serve children ranging in age from 6-13. We offer a school based curriculum, which educates neurotypical children on diversity, ability awareness and ways to build meaningful friendships with children who appear different from themselves. These children act as peer models for the rest of the school community, ultimately changing the dynamic to a more inclusive mindset. Our approach is based on the research that children learn more effective social skills from peers rather than adults. As it turns out, our program has become an effective anti-bullying program as well! In addition to our school program, we also offer inclusive social skill groups in the community. We believe that children are more likely to develop friendships when they are engaged in activities that they enjoy. We rely heavily on community organizations, volunteers and community spaces in order to facilitate these groups. We are dedicated to helping create a more inclusive community and believe that by holding our groups in different spaces helps organizations see how they can be more accessible. Our different interest groups currently include art, sports, cooking, dance, animals, and yoga. The foundation driving all of these groups is developing the necessary social skills to build and maintain friendships.