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The Circle of Friends Program
 Being a single mother can be joyous, stressful, wonderful, and trying. We would not trade it for anything, yet raising children without much support can be a lonely experience. The Circle of Friends Program strives to bring single mothers, their children, and their combined families together to replace the loneliness with laughter. The Circle of Friends provides a unique environment to develop friendships, build community, exchange resource information, provide shared childcare, carpooling and have varied opportunities for social interaction. Monthly gatherings, shared interest groups, outings, book clubs and special events provide a forum to share ideas, encourage self-improvement, make friends, and of course, have fun.
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Thus far CoAbode has support groups operating in 21 states hosted by 35 Facilitators. These ‘Facilitators’ are essentially CoAbode participants who volunteered to set up and host a support group in their neighborhood. They volunteered for a variety of reasons but mostly to make friends with other single moms who could best understand what they go through on a day to day basis.
We are very pleased with the progress that has been made with our Circle of Friends efforts to-date but we believe that so much more can be achieved if the right amount of time and energy is put into building the program to its full potential.
Our program objectives are as follows:
To create three specialist forums through which single mothers can connect for support and friendships according to their specific needs, interests and locality. These forums or groups would operate in as many states and counties as we can find volunteers.
Circle of Strength would provide a support system for single mothers who are facing specific challenges, such as parenting children with special needs or overcoming personal disability. Through CoAbode’s Circle of Strength they can connect with other women facing similar life situations such as:
• Discussing Divorce with Children
• ADD/HD and Learning Disabilities
• Keeping Kids Safe
• Physical Fitness and Nutrition
• Mapping a Financial Future, Estate Planning
• Communicating Better with Children
• Achieving Career Advancement
• Nurturing the Spirit - Toward Self-Healing
• Developing a Civilized Relationship with former spouses
• Buying a home alone
Circle of Hope is designed to allow single mothers come together to make a difference in their local neighborhoods through volunteer opportunities with community/social programs such as Meals on Wheels, Christmas Toy Drive, Beach and Park Clean up etc.
Social Circles are dedicated to bringing more joy into single moms’ lives by uniting them for special CoAbode-organized events like picnics and outings. The key objective is fun and relaxation to brighten up the day. CoAbode has already connected with health and beauty providers such as the Body Shop who have agreed to sponsor ‘evenings of beauty’ as well as Barnes & Noble who have already started supplying of the reading material for the ‘book clubs’.
Based on our experience with the Circle of Friends we believe that this network of specialist support groups for single moms is possible in every state in the union. Our strategy would rely on outreach to school districts, major faith based organizations, the La Leche League, local Parenting magazines which exist in almost every U. S. metropolitan center. For the Circle of Strength support groups we would invite all of the major parenting, medical and counseling organizations to provide us with the speakers qualified to address our participants on the challenges they face whether it is parenting a child with Asthma or learning disorders or managing the family budget.
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