WisconSibs- sisters and brothers of people with disabilities
WisconSibs was created in 1998 in the Fox Cities because our founder and parent of Sib, Harriet Redman, was unable to find resources for her daughter. We have since started running Sibshops, developed more and more programs, including summer camps for kids, teen leadership programs, and future planning and social activities for adult siblings. Throughout the years, the mission has remained the same “to foster a community of support and understanding for brothers and sisters of individuals with special needs” with a vision that “siblings thrive throughout their unique life-long journey”. In March 2024 we brought WisconSibs from the Fox Cities area to Madison. Since then in Madison, we have hosted one facilitator training, 2 fundraisers, 2 family events, hosted 15 volunteers, and have had 50 kids attend Sibshops. Sibshops are our largest and more important aspect of our Madison WisconSibs community. These are monthly workshops for kids ages 6 to 12 who have a sibling with a disability. We host them around Dane County and recently even offered one in Janesville. In Madison, even though we have only been running for just over a year, we host the same number of kids as Fox Cities that has been running for over 20 years. Each month we meet to talk about what life is like as a sib, build community, and of course have fun. We create a safe space where kids can share their empathy, pride, compassion, guilt, resentment, and embarrassment. They can talk about it with other kids that get it. The demand is real and we are continuing to increase the number of kids involved in our programs as well as the programs offered.