Families Helping Families
One problem I have noticed throughout my last few years teaching special education is the lack of support for parents and families, outside of the school system. For the majority of my students with exceptionalities, their initial evaluation results and subsequent placement are new and can be difficult to process. In my experience, the pupil appraisal process and all the terminology that goes along with it can overwhelm parents. The problem, as I saw it, was a need for resources for families with a special needs child-resources that support them as they navigate the bureaucracy of public school special education and services.
During the course of my research and assignments for Teaching For Transformation I, I looked into several local opportunities that would provide access for my students, and settled on Families Helping Families. Below, I detail my research, rationale, and outcomes of partnering with this non-profit organization in order to provide my students and their families opportunities for support, information, and advocacy.
Planning and Rationale
Families Helping Families is a non-profit organization founded and run by families with individuals with physical, emotional, behavioral, mental, cognitive, and developmental disabilities. They offer a wide array of support services and information to the public, and hold weekly events that help connect families. Families Helping Families of Greater Baton Rouge is part of a larger national network of resource centers.
I opted for this resource because of its potential longevity and scope of its impact on my students and families’ lives. While this resource isn’t solely geared towards students, it provides resources, access, and support for families with individuals with disabilities. Additionally, it is managed and directed by families with individuals with exceptionalities, so their commitment is grounded in personal experience. It is possible that some of my students may require transition services, and other related services for their entire lives, and being connected to a support network is essential for them to be empowered and successful. My class vision for my students centers around advocacy, specifically that students develop an astute self-awareness that allows them to advocate for themselves and others’ unique needs. This vision is founded in modeling what an advocate is, not only for my students but their parents and stakeholders as well. Due to my students’ age, giving a voice to their rights and needs must begin from their closest support system, which is first and foremost, their family. By connecting parents to this organization, I wanted to create a stronger circle of encouragement and advocacy around my children.
What excites me the most about this resource is that they offer a little something for everyone. There are parent support groups, information sessions, social services, references for related services, medical counseling and healthcare services, and social/recreational events per age group. Students can join a group of peers and practice social and language skills during holiday dances, and athletic events, while their parents/families connect with others who have similar experiences. I think that no matter what the need is, all families could benefit from this resource in some way, shape, or form.
Action and Sustainability
In order to effectively provide true access for my students and families, I developed a clear action plan, with next steps for myself as an individual, as well as general tasks to be accomplished by my school Special Education team. Planning for access includes concrete decisions, as well as long-term planning in order to ensure that access to these resources is sustainable. One of the reasons I chose this resource was because of its potential to provide support for families for the entirety of the child's development, so it is my responsibility to also take steps to ensure its lasting impact.
Provided below is my Planning for Access presentation, including my Action & Sustainability Plan.
Special Education Collaboration
In the Planning for Access presentation, I detail the five stages of planning that I explored in an effort to provide increased access for my students, from the initial exploration, to the eventual implementation of the event. During the research portion of this 5 week long project, I first explored five different event or field trip possibilities that I felt would open pathways of opportunities for my children that were not regionally obvious. After selecting my intended resource, Families Helping Families, I developed both an action and a sustainability plan, including detailed next steps, a logistical mapping of potential issues, and a calendar for implementation. The presentation above also includes a rationale for the project and subsequent event, based on the unique needs of my classroom and of my students.
In order to maximize the impact of this planned partnership between students' families, and Families Helping Families, I sought to extend the tentative event to all parents and stakeholders of individuals with exceptionalities at our school. To accomplish this, after seeking administration's approval, I presented the idea and reasoning to my Special Education PLC, who not only voiced their interest and support, but jumped on board whole-heartedly. During our team meetings, we flushed out our intended outcomes, logistical issues, and delegated tasks to help market the event.
Resources and Meeting
Our Families Helping Families parent information event was held in early February and included an introduction from both the school, and organization, resource sharing, and a collective activity for students and parents to participate in. One of the major goals of this event was to increase parents' and families' awareness of the resources and support available to them in their surrounding community. Therefore, much of the program was centered around community partnerships and upcoming events offered by these parties, in order to encourage parent efficacy and camaraderie. There was also a Question and Answer portion of the evening, both in the group and individual settings, in order to connect with families and to address any concerns.
(Above): This flyer was used as the agenda for the evening's program, and given to each guest as they entered the venue at the school library.
(Above): A special needs student, accompanied by her parent, attended the event and enjoy the program's refreshments.
Parent Responses
In order to evaluate the success of this Access event, my team and I measured its reach using qualitative and quantitative data. After the initial session, we administered a short parent survey that asks individuals to rate the effectiveness of the session, how likely they are to use the resource moving forward, and elicit open-ended feedback or additional questions they might have. This measure allows the school-level support team and I to individualize our follow-up to families’ specific needs. Surveys also enable us to share important information and feedback with Families Helping Families, so they too can cater content in future sessions, or connect families with a particular resource.
In a quantitative way, we also determined the scope of our reach using attendance numbers for the initial Parent Night. By counting how many families we reached using the presentation, we've been able to better gauge what the possible steps are, both instructionally with my children and in outreach efforts with my parents. Attendance is also a method I can use to determine participation of families in future Families Helping Families events. This helps build a bigger picture of the impact of connecting my students with this resource.
Below are samples of parent survey responses.
The parent surveys, as seen above, indicate varying needs and responses from families that attended, though overall levels of satisfaction with the presentation were high.
Reflection
This experience, though intended for families and parents, has had an powerful impact on me as well. First, it was eye-opening to see how many parents ached for more information, and accessible resources in order to better support their children. For parents and educators to be true partners in students' education and lives, there needs to be a level playing field, and an open exchange of ideas and communication. Given parents' responses and reactions from the event, it tells me that as educators, we can be and need to be doing more. Parent participation also helped our team realize the need for parents to have a community of peers too. We often are very intentional about planning these experiences for our children, and take steps to ensure inclusion, however, families of students with special needs also need access to collaborative spaces.
In addition, connecting my students with individuals who share similar interests and have commiserate experiences as they do motivates my students to engaged and be active drivers of their own paths. I believe my students need to see models in the world who are a reflection of their experience, and this resource provides them with the opportunity to engage with peers who also have exceptionalities. Connecting and working with individuals who are alike in such important ways can help my students build a sense of community within this organization and empower them to reflect those ideas within their own communities.