Special Friends Extended, Inc.

Special Friends Extended, Inc. (SFE) began as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1996 which consisted of mentors/teachers. Special Friends Extended Mentor Program spun off and expanded in 2006. This program invites professionals from the community to come to the schools K-12th grade and mentor students on life skills.

Mentors at the elementary level have breakfast with one student and then they are escorted to the student's classroom to facilitate a prepared lesson with the teacher on life skills. the program began to recruit professionals from the community to serve as mentors and expanded into the Riverview Gardens District. Last school year, SFE's program engaged 100 community volunteers to provide in-class lessons to 2,311 students at seven schools in the Jennings and Riverview Gardens Districts.

Mentors at the junior high level are invited into the classroom to facilitate a lesson on life skills with the classroom teacher. The lessons are strictly geared to meet the needs of junior high students. Both elementary and junior high mentors meet in the school's library for a continental breakfast at every meeting. This gives the mentors a chance to network with each other as well.

At the High School level lessons have been departmentalized and lessons are taught for various groups of students on for example, maintaining a bank account and personal finances. All lessons taught in the classroom will be on one of the following character traits: respectfulness, responsibility, caring, perseverance in school, honesty, self-control and other life skills.