Parents and Members:
We are very glad to welcome you and your child (or children) to be part of the Friendship Circle. The following guidelines and information are intended to enable us to provide programs that ensure safety and enjoyment of all participants.
Behavioral guidelines to share with your children.
Parents are often the most effective way to make sure that FC participants understand the Friendship Circle rules. If necessary, please share with your child the fact that the following behaviors are not allowed:
• Upsetting another participant through teasing, swearing at them or verbal aggression.
• Any form of physical aggression (including kicking, spitting, hitting etc.)
• Being out of control physically such as running into the street or out of the program area in a manner that risks a friend’s safety.
• Inappropriate body contact.
*When possible, please encourage your child to refrain from bringing items from home such as iPods, cell phones, toys or gadgets. If this is not realistic for your child, please discuss this with a staff member.
*We ask all participants to avoid overly revealing clothes or T-shirts with generally offensive slogans or images on them.
Ensuring an enjoyable, safe program
We understand that some children will have issues that could jeopardize the safety or the enjoyment of other participants. Therefore, under some circumstances, we will require that a child needs to have a family member or TSS present at some activities (ie, outings to publics areas.) This pertains to participants who:
• Need to be chased in order to remain in the program area.
• Require a level of supervision that exceeds the abilities of the high school volunteers.
• Frequently are disruptive to the extent that it jeopardizes the ability to provide enjoyable group activities to the members in general.
This will enable us to still welcome your child.
Additional guidelines:
Signing up for activities:
In order to provide enjoyment and appropriate safety for our participants, each program or activity must be properly staffed. Therefore parents must sign-up their child or young adult prior to the program. If the member is not registered when he/she arrives and the program is not able to accommodate him/her, the parent can stay and participate (in order to have the correct adult to member ratio,) or the member will not be able to stay.
Notifying FC if a child can’t attend an event
If your child is not able to attend a scheduled event, please be sure to notify FC. This allows the program to run properly, avoid unnecessary expenses, and notify any children who may be on a waiting list who would like to attend.
Dropping children off at events (and picking them up)
Parents must sign-in their children when they drop them off, and sign them out before they can be released from an event. If someone other than the child’s parent will be picking them up, this must be noted on the sign-in/ sign-out sheet. This must include the name of the person and their relationship to child.
Availability by phone
Parents need to provide a phone contact number where they can be reached during any event or activity. This is requested on the sign-in sheet. This is essential for emergencies or in the event that a child might need to leave a particular program.
Understanding the limits of FC regarding medical care
If a member needs medication, the parent should administer this to their child prior to the FC program. If there is an extended program and medication is necessary, the parents must discuss this with the director to get approval prior to the program, by signing a permission form. The Friendship Circle does not provide a medical doctor at any programs/events so medication administration by staff or volunteers is not advised.
In case of medical emergency will call 911 and parents will be notified.