Created for parents by parents
Parent Roadmap
Your Guide to Raising a Child with Combined Hearing and Vision Losses
The Least Dangerous Assumptions
What should you do–if your child is born and everyone around him predicts that he will never communicate, or play, or make friends, or learn?
Would you like to hear the voices of other families?
The Florida Outreach Project team includes a Family Education Specialist and a Family Engagement Coordinator:
Shelly Voelker and Pam Kissoondyal
Shelly is the parent of two sons with deaf-blindness, physical, and developmental disabilities. Pam is also the parent of children with disabilities. Both Shelly and Pam have extensive training and experience working with children and families affected by deaf-blindness and other disabilities. They are eager to answer your questions, listen to your concerns, make suggestions, and recommend resources.
Family Resources
- Families Matter Stories – National Center on Deaf-Blindness
- Family Fun Facts – National Center on Deaf-Blindness
- Family Connect for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments
- Dads Talk, Too!
Florida’s Parent Training Centers and Parent-to-Parent Resources
Family Network on Disabilities (FND) was founded in 1985 by a group of parents of children with disabilities who came together for mutual support and information-sharing. FND is a grassroots organization for persons with disabilities and their families that is family-centered and family-driven.
Family Network on Disabilities operates the following programs in Florida
- The Parent Education Network (PEN) project is the Parent Training Information (PTI) center for the 10 most southern counties of Florida, (Lee, Collier, Hendry, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Martin, Charlotte, and Glades).
- The Parents Offering Parents Information and Networking (POPIN) program provides parent training and information (PTI) services to the Florida Panhandle from Escambia to Volusia County (Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Calhoun, Gulf, Bay, Washington, Jackson, Liberty, Holmes, Franklin, Wakulla, Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson, Taylor, Madison, Hamilton, Dixie, Suwannee, Lafayette, Gilchrist, Columbia, Baker, Levy, Alachua, Union, Bradford, Nassau, Duval, St. John’s, Clay, Putnam, Flagler, Marion, and Volusia).
- The Parent Support Network offers Parent Training Information (PTI) services to help ensure that parents of children with the full range of disabilities have the training and information they need to prepare their children for school, and to be able to lead productive, independent lives to the fullest extent possible.
- The Family STAR program assists families of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) and professionals so they can make informed decisions about health care through support, training, assistance and resources. We help families to be effective partners in the health care decision making process at all levels.
- The Dadvocates program helps fathers be involved in the lives of their children with disabilities.
- Youth Advocacy activities are designed to enable individuals with disabilities and their families to participate more effectively with professionals in meeting the vocational, independent living, and rehabilitation needs of individuals with disabilities
Parent Center Hub
All the materials found on the CPIR Hub have been created and archived for Parent Centers around the country to help them provide support and services to the families they serve. See Parent Centers across the USA and other resources.