2004-2005 Family NetWorks Support Grants

A.C.C.E.S.S.: Autism in Cecil County: Education for Support and Success
A.C.C.E.S.S. is the first autism support group in Cecil County. Families who are touched by autism need a safe place to go for support from others who have traveled the road they are on. A.C.C.E.S.S. support group will provide this support through discussion groups, and community outreach activities. They will be focusing on three main objectives over the next year:
1. Provide public awareness of A.C.C.E.S.S.
2. Provide resources, services and educational opportunities
3. Enhance autism advocacy in the community
A.C.C.E.S.S. has been awarded $500.00.
For more information you may contact Karen Mackie

Celebrating All of Us
The project entitled Celebrating All of Us is the culmination of a collaboration between Claire Holmes, the parent of a child who has Down syndrome (and who is fully included in his neighborhood school), Julie Bartos, a Baltimore County Schools physical therapist, and Katherine Freiburg, a Montgomery County Schools special educator. The project offers field tested literature-based tools for early childhood educators, related service providers and parents to use in their efforts to build friendships and enhance the experience of all children in inclusive settings in their neighborhoods, schools and communities through similarities awareness. The project features similarities awareness lessons that facilitate the development of friendships of pre-kindergarteners through second graders, an age group that research has shown is optimal for building positive inclusive behaviors, including tolerance and compassion. The goal of Celebrating All of Us is to ensure that classrooms, schools, teachers, communities, parents and children are, indeed, celebrating all of us!
Celebrating All of Us has been awarded $300.00
For more information contact Claire Holmes

Chapel Forge PTO
Chapel Forge Early Childhood Center proposes to address the needs of its parent members by providing an ambitious training program and sharing it with the teachers that work with our children every day. Empowering our parents, we feel, is the best way to assure successful inclusion of our children in the general education setting when they leave the Early Childhood Center environment.
The planned agenda is as follows and speakers are still to be determined for some topics:

The IEP and YOU: Parent Driven IEPs – October
Diet, Nutrition and Special Needs* – November
Transitioning: Life After Chapel Forge – January
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy* – February
Emotional Development* – March
Recreation & Social Experiences – April
Teacher Appreciation Day – May
* Denotes a new topic

Chapel Forge PTO has been awarded $500.00
For more information contact Margarita M. Cardona

Chesapeake Down Syndrome Parent Group, Inc
The CDSPG will sponsor a “Spring Speaker Series” in spring 2005. The purpose of the speaker series is to empower individuals and families to fully participate in advocacy for themselves, their families and others. Speakers have been chosen to maximize full participation, choice and control by families over the supports and services they receive. This series will be advertised widely within the disability community, with specific outreach to those who have an interest in the education of inner city youth and families from different cultures. School system personnel will also be invited in order to encourage partnerships and more effectively reach a wider, more diverse audience who will positively impact the lives of students with disabilities.
The speaker series will include:

Kathie Snow, parent of a teenaged son with a disability and author of Disability is Natural: Revolutionary Common Sense for Raising Successful Children with Disabilities.
Doug Fisher, Ph.D., a high school English teacher from San Diego and also works for San Diego State University and has authored several books on why inclusion is important and how to make it work.
Paula Kluth, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Leadership at Syracuse University. She is a former special educator with experience teaching in both elementary and high school settings. She is also the author of a book about teaching students with autism in the inclusive classroom entitled You’re Going to Love this Kid!

CDSPG has been awarded $1500.00
For more information contact Casey Huether

Chesapeake-Potomac Spina Bifida Association, Inc.
The Chesapeake-Potomac Spina Bifida Association, Inc. is a parent-led regional association created in 1997 to provide coordinated medical, education, vocational and social services to the over 1,000 individuals with spina bifida in Maryland and the metro Washington area. The association’s mission is “to promote the prevention of spina bifida and to support the needs of individuals with spina bifida and related disorders”. The CPSBA’s programs and services reflect the association’s goals: To enable children, youth and adults with spina bifida to maximize their potential for educational achievement, employment, independence and a healthy life; To significantly reduce the incidence of spina bifida and related conditions; To enable families of individuals with spina bifida to receive care-giving support from each other” The association developed the following services for its members;

Information/referral service
Bi-annual 90 page resource directory
Quarterly newsletter
Web site: www.chesapeakespinabifida.org
Special Needs Fund provides financial assistance for medical and support services
New Parent Visitation Program at regional hospitals
Parents Helping Parents program at regional spina bifida centers
Annual education conference

CPSBA’s is looking to expand their Parents Helping Parents Program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Spina Bifida Center in Baltimore.
CPSBA’s has been awarded $500.00.
For more information contact Toni Shumate

Support Group for Kodem Kol Parents
Kodem Kol (literally translated as First of All) began in 2001 and is a program of The Kennedy Krieger Institute Department for Family Support Services, the Baltimore Infants and Toddlers Program, the Baltimore County Infants and Toddlers Program, and the Center for Jewish Education, an agency of THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. These community agencies have partnered to provide outreach, training, and service in the Baltimore Jewish Community for infants and toddlers who are eligible for early intervention services and their families. Kodem Kol is the only program of its kind in the Baltimore area tailored specifically to the Orthodox Jewish Community, a much underserved population.
Goals of Kodem Kol are to:

Implement outreach strategies
Provide comprehensive and culturally sensitive training to other service providers
Assist evaluators/therapists to ensure that assessments and interventions are culturally appropriate
Provide early intervention service coordination

Kodem Kol has been awarded $1000.00.
For more information contact Elana Grayman

PEP: Parents Empowering Parents
Parents Empowering Parents (PEP) is a newly formed support group based in Frederick County Maryland which strives to create supportive communities for children with disabilities. They hope to better educate families of individuals with developmental disabilities so they can become more proficient in advocacy. They will do this by providing a caring and supportive atmosphere to caregivers and creating a network forum for an interchange of existing information. PEP reaches out beyond geographical boundaries, across organizational lines and beyond cultural barriers. They will also share age appropriate information to caregivers on ideas and methods to help their dependents plan for the different stages of their disabilities. PEP will meet monthly alternating between a round table discussion and guest speaker.
PEP has been awarded $600.00.
For more information contact Vicki and Veryl Frahm

For additional information on any of the projects listed, please visit the Family NET Works website at www.family-networks.org.