2009 May | Our Special Families Village

California Disability Community Action Network

I stumbled on this site today and thought, especially in light of our current budget “issues”, that it was worth sharing:

California Disability Community Action Network

Description from their website:

Disability Rights – Advocacy Without Borders: Connecting People With Disabilities, Mental Health Needs, Seniors, Traumatic Brain & other injuries, People with MS & other health needs that includes veterans, people of color, people of different cultures, languages, sexual orientation, Families, Workers, Providers, & Organizations to Disability Rights and toward Unified Action. We are one community together.

I suggest you also take a look at this commentary by Marty Omoto, the director/organizer of the non-partisan California Disability Community Action Network.

Filed Under: Food For Thought, Information and Resources Tagged With: Advocacy, Special Needs, Special Needs Support

Hill House – A Castle for our Kids

By Sandra Leave a Comment

I have heard so much about Hill House from my friend Cheryl (who works there) and from Becca (Matthew’s Teacher) but I hadn’t had the opportunity to get more information. Until I met Tod Tomlinson who runs the program at the Special Olympics School Games last Friday. Tod is completely passionate about his program and it’s benefits. His enthusiasm and energy are truly contagious and I know the students in his program benefit from this as much as the program itself.

The Hill in Hill House stands for High school Independent Living & Learning Transition Class but from what I have seen and heard it is so much more. Check it out here and be sure to scroll down to the Power Point presentation – very cool!

Filed Under: Special Education Tagged With: Special Needs, Transition Services

California Assistive Technology Exchange

By Sandra Leave a Comment

Becca (Special Ed Teacher at Righetti High School) sent this in – thanks Becca!

California Assistive Technology Exchange (CATE) www.ccate.org

They deal with all sorts of assistive technology (switches, communication devices, mobility things, visual assistance things) and few people know about them. You can borrow a costly device from them for 2 weeks or more and see if it’s right for your child/student before you buy it or dig up funds for it. We’ve used several different augmented communication devices from them trying to find the perfect model for one of my students. It’s been absolutely great and the guys that work there, Paul and John are super nice.

They have centers all over California including the one we go to in San Luis Obispo. This is one of those rare but awesome services we are always talking about.