Update:, There are now almost 2,000 of you and over 500 professionals, donors, event sponsors, and other friends and supporters in our database. We are growing by almost 500 parents a year. So, if you move or change a phone number, please let us know. It takes a lot of time to contact families when we get a disconnected number or a newsletter returned with no forwarding address. Please contact Susan Prior with updates at Susan.Prior@txp2p.org or call at 866-896-6001 or local 458-8600.
There are now thirteen people working to carry out TxP2P’s mission, including 3 full-time and 10 part-time positions. Patty Geisinger has recently started scheduling parent “administrative volunteers” to come into the office to help with calls, updating parent contact information, copying materials for trainings, and any other job we have that needs to be done. If you would like to help with these type of tasks, please contact Patty Geisinger at Patty@txp2p.org or call the office.
Listservs: We coordinate parent-only listservs for the following areas: Austin, Bryan/College Station, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, San Marcos and Waco/Temple. Additional listservs focus on specific topics including ADD/ADHD, Advocacy, Bipolar, ECI, & Homeschoolers. We are starting new listservs for autism and transition soon. We welcome input on ideas for creating new listservs that will be beneficial to parents – please share your ideas with Laura Warren at Laura@txp2p.org or call the office. We are also looking for volunteers to moderate new local or topical listservs and to create resource lists from the archives of the local listservs to be placed on the local listserv’s website. If you are interested in helping us with this, please contact Laura at Laura@txp2p.org or call the office.
Family to Family Health Information Center: We now have two Family to Family federal grants to help families learn more about health care for children with disabilities and special health care needs. These grants have increased our ability to provide support and matching for parents as well as provided trainings and presentations throughout the state. What’s important for you to know is that we have added a Bilingual Trainer. For topics, please go to http://www.txp2p.org/f2fpresentations.pdf or contact Jeanine Pinner at Jeanine@txp2p.org or 512-217-3558 or Debbie De Luna at DebbieD@txp2p.org or 956-447-5568 to schedule trainings for your parent group or conference.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Contract: We received a contract through the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program to provide parent-to-parent support for families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Our first step has been to train parents as Supporting Parent Volunteers. We still need more volunteers. We also have resources to support new families who have just learned that their child has a hearing loss. So, if you want to volunteer to help new families or if you know of new families, please contact Laura Davis @ Laura.Davis@txp2p.org or Lisa Crawford at LisaC@txp2p.org or call them at 866-896-6001 or local 458-8600.
Transition Program: We are in the process of creating a Transition Program for families of youth and young adults with disabilities or special health care needs based on parent-to-parent support and the book, A Good Life. We are recruiting parent volunteers who have experienced the transition process to be trained as Transition Supporting Parent Volunteers and plan to start an email-based training after the first of the year. Please contact Laura at Laura@txp2p.org or call the office if you are interested in volunteering.
We are also testing out a curriculum based on transition issues for a working parent group currently made up of staff and a few of our volunteers. We not only discuss the emotional aspects of transition but are also helping each other work on goals toward transition for our children and plan to read A Good Life together. It’s been a terrific experience and one we plan to replicate across the state. If you are interested in this parent group model, please contact Laura at Laura@txp2p.org or call the office.
Supporting Parent Volunteer Training: Our volunteers attend an all-day training on a Saturday before we match them with new parents. This year’s dates are:
Austin, Jan. 19th
Weslaco, Feb. 16th
Waco, April 12th
San Antonio, May 17th
Corpus Christi, Aug. 9th
Longview, July 12th
Houston, Oct. 11th
El Paso, Sept. 13th
If you are interested in being trained as a volunteer, contact Erika at Erika @txp2p.org or call the office
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP TxP2P:
Holiday Appeal: We recently mailed our holiday appeal requesting donations to help us cover the expenses of TxP2P programs and services. Grants and contracts only cover a portion of our costs. However, we know what it costs to raise a child with disabilities or special health care needs. If you typically donate to nonprofits, we hope that you consider adding TxP2P to your list of donations.
Family Stories: We share stories about our families for a variety of purposes – the newsletter, thank you notes to donors and sponsors, grant proposals, etc. So, if you would like to write a one-page story about how parent-to-parent support has helped you and your family, we would love it if you would share your experiences with us. The story does not have to be specific to how TxP2P helped you as long as it relates to how connecting with other parents helped you. We are also looking for stories on how your extended family or community has been helpful. Please send them to Laura at Laura@txp2p.org or to our office at 3710 Cedar Street, Box 12, Austin, TX 78705-1449.
Email newsletter: We are now able to get the email newsletter to you without you joining a YahooGroup. If you are interested in receiving your newsletter by email and saving a tree and the expense of printing and postage, please contact Susan at Susan.Prior@txp2p.org or call the office.
Want Your Relatives to Receive Our Quarterly Newsletter: Although parents are our primary focus, we know sometimes that your relatives are a major support for you in caring for your child. If you think they would enjoy receiving our newsletter, please have them call us (866-896-6001 or local 458-8600) or have them go to the website (www.txp2p.org) and sign up.
Name Our Newsletter: Someone just asked me the name of our newsletter and I responded “Texas Parent to Parent.” Very original – actually, kind of embarrassing! It then occurred to me that maybe we should ask you what you think our newsletter should be named. So, help us out – if you have any great ideas for our newsletter name, please email them to Debbie Wiederhold at Debbie@txp2p.org or call the office.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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