#Resources for families with children with special needs
Each month, Family Voices Indiana provides the families we serve with a summary of the month’s hottest items. If you missed us on Facebook in April, here is the latest!
Awareness:
Autism Awareness Month
Sibling Day, April 10.
Family Voices:
Check out our Family Voices Staff Spotlights! This month’s page featured specialist Cyndi Johnson.
Facebook fans liked our many inspirational quotes. Be sure to check out our page for a pick-me-up. Also, we encourage you to share our page with friends using the share or invite features!
“No doubt you do feel alienated from your non-special needs friends but you begin to build an alliance with a new group of individuals, some who you may never even meet in person. What is great about this group is although you may not have chosen them as your friends; you will find that what you have is an unspoken bond. They know this new world of emotions you are experiencing and you never have to explain it. So when these new friends hear laughter and tears in your voice or see profound disappointed coupled with unconditional love in your eyes, they don’t pity you, they understand you because they have been there too." Read the article here: http://www.sharedabilities.com/blog-what-the-books-dont-tell-you. Even though every journey is unique, we've traveled a similar route; we're parents, too. Please let us know if we can help.
"I don’t know whether saying something will make a difference to them or not. It certainly made a difference to me. I now know that I can speak up for Wade and teach him how to speak up for himself too. I’m starting to realise that it is more important just to find my voice than to find the 'right' words." Read the article here: http://embracingwade.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/i-stood-up-for-my-son-today-and-it-felt-good/.
Training and Learning Opportunities:
Family Voices works to fulfill our mission of empowering families by providing you with educational opportunities and resources. Check our website frequently for learning resources by visiting: http://www.fvindiana.org/training. This month, we shared the following on Facebook:
"We teach our children water safety and road safety - it is equally important to teach our children 'body safety'.” It's a topic most of us don't want to tackle. To assist parents, caregivers and educators, here is a summary of the 10 Key Body Safety Skills every parent/carer/educator should teach both their disabled and non-disabled child. Please note, these skills can be taught gradually and in daily conversations as your child grows: http://bit.ly/1nt81La.
Family Voices Indiana attended the Aged, Blind, Disabled Task Force meeting regarding managed care for this population. This blog post contains the presentation slides and other relevant information.
Newsworthy:
Families who prefer information in Spanish and/or would like to connect with other Latino families are invited to check out our Spanish Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VocesDeFamiliaDeIndiana.
We also host Pinterest boards http://pinterest.com/fvindiana/; a YouTube Channel, http://bit.ly/1a28nTM; text messaging, text "FVIndiana" to 313131 for English or "FVIndianaEs" to 313131 for Spanish; a blog www.fvindiana.blogspot.com; and Twitter, https://twitter.com/FVIndiana. Each outlet serves a slightly different purpose. We encourage you to try them all and use the one(s) that serve you best!
Collaboration:
Family Voices encourages you to use your voice to influence care, public and private policy, and educate others. In that vein, we strive to share with you opportunities to collaborate with others to improve the systems we engage. Here are some upcoming opportunities:
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