The village plays a significant role in the Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) process. First, villagers are surveyed to gauge their interest in non-formal education. Where there is sufficient interest, villagers are encouraged to form a committee to oversee the school. The committee nominates two potential teachers. With FTS and the selected teacher, the village committee helps determine the location, timings, and basic curriculum. The committee is also responsible for generating interest in the educational process and in addressing any issues that may arise during the school year.

Second, villagers contribute to the FTS in kind. From the beginning, FTS encourages village involvement and prepares them to be wholly self-sufficient in 5 to 7 years. (See self-reliance chart) Though initially, the village’s financial contributions are often meager, their contribution has a tremendous effect on their involvement and on the long-term sustainability of the FTS.

The best guarantee of FTS’s success is the involvement and participation of the villagers. Before it selects a village, FTS ensures that the village has sufficient interest in the process. Once the village is selected, the villagers are involved in a multitude of things such as establishing the location and timing of the school, selecting the teacher, and adapting the curriculum. The FTS belongs to the village; thus, village involvement is important to the FTS’s development. In addition, a group of dedicated full-time workers help maintain the schools’ regularity and consistency in the level of education. Furthermore, prominent urban families serve as ‘caretaker families.’ They regularly visit the schools and interact with the villagers. Community involvement and participation thus proves to guarantee in FTS’s success.

One of the strengths of FTS's non-formal education program is that it can be run on the children's terms. The FTS takes into consideration their schedule, their experience, their needs, their dreams. These children are the future. . . that is why it is important to take education to their doorstep and ignite their minds.

For FTS , education is more than book learning. Education is the assimilation of life-building, man-making, character-building ideas. To instill those principles requires skills and dedication. FTS takes great care in selecting and training its teachers to provide the best quality education possible.