#AutismAction — LifeTown: A Wonderland for Autism in New Jersey

Written By Jill Escher, President

A community center like no other opens in a state where childhood autism rates exceed 3%.

LifeTown offers life-skills programs, educational opportunities, sports, dance, music, theater and art, job training, and social activities.

By Jonah Zimiles

LifeTown is an extraordinary wonderland located in Livingston, New Jersey. Opened right before the onset of the pandemic, LifeTown is the culmination of a decade of dreams, planning and hard work, fulfilled by the creation of a 53,000 square foot fully inclusive and accessible center where everyone celebrates and experiences life together.  

LifeTown is the brainchild of Zalman and Toba Grossbaum, who run the Friendship Circle, an organization created to pair “typical” and special needs kids together as friends through the engagement in mutually enjoyable and rewarding activities. LifeTown goes beyond the original construct of the Friendship Circle to provide a myriad of exceptional experiences and opportunities for the entire community, and is designed to support individuals with a wide variety of special needs, including severe autism, throughout the lifespan.  

LifeTown offers life-skills programs, educational opportunities, sports, dance, music, theater and art, job training, and social activities. At the heart of LifeTown is its flagship program, “Lessons for Life.” Centered in LifeTown Shoppes—an indoor Main Street with shops, businesses and more—Lessons for Life allows students to practice their classroom lessons through real-world situations. With volunteers playing shopkeeper, banker, supermarket manager and more, students can work on their social skills, money and time management, communication skills and much more.

In 2009, my wife, Ellen, and I opened [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey, to provide jobs and vocational training to individuals with autism. We are extremely proud to be among the founders of LifeTown and to have established our second branch on LifeTown’s Main Street. LifeTown has proved to be a great source of joy and training for Daniel, our adult son with autism. Visits to LifeTown have been limited by the pandemic, but we hope that you will come see LifeTown soon. For more information about LifeTown, please see LifeTown.com or email me at jonah@wordsmaplewood.com.

Jonah Zimiles is co-founder of [words] Bookstore and LifeTown, both in New Jersey.

Jill Escher, President

Jill Escher is president of the National Council on Severe Autism and the mother of two children with nonverbal forms of autism. Through the Escher Fund for Autism she promotes and funds research on the genetic toxicology of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions, and she has served on the governing council of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society, where she co-chairs its Germ Cell and Heritable Effects special interest group. She was president of Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area from 2013 to 2019 and, through her family business, Claradon Properties, provides housing to adults with developmental disabilities in the Bay Area. See more of her work at jillescher.com.

https://www.jillescher.com/
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