Welcome to the Village!

If you are reading this in May of 2009, it is because you received an email from me with the link, or someone on that email list forwarded you a copy. However and whenever you found us doesn’t matter, you are here, and we thank you.

“Ok, great, but why am I here,” you ask? Because I’ve stalled long enough and it’s time to get moving on this thing. Last night’s Santa Maria Joint Union High School Board meeting convinced me.

You see, I’ve had the idea for this site for years, I’ve even discussed it with some of you, but I’ve never moved forward. But this Village is my dream, my passion and it’s time to do it – for our families.

My original vision was (and still is) to make this site a “Community Center” for families who have members with Special Needs. A “one stop shop” to make finding information and support as easy as clicking your mouse. I envision a site with information, resources, and tools in multimedia formats (text, audio, and video) on everything from Special Needs friendly restaurants to the latest techniques in Language Therapy.

And a site that brings us all together to support each other. Having a bad day? Go to the forums and set down your burden among friends. Have questions on how to get services for your child? Go to the forums and ask the community, your friends who have “been there and done that” and have the inside track.

I haven’t done this, until now, because I let silly little things, like time and money, get in my way. I thought I needed to launch it as that perfect vision. I thought I had to do it alone. Well duh! Isn’t my whole vision here to bring us all together as a community to help each other? So why was I thinking I had to do this on my own? I don’t know, except maybe because…

I also saw it as being a source of income. As this idea took hold in my soul, my brain thought I needed this to be a business. But that never sat well with my heart. But as I develop other projects, that do produce income, I have learned that I can do this, with the help of our Village of Special Families. Yes, there is a place to donate here but I will make a full accounting of how that money is spent and I won’t take a dime for myself. Some of that money will go to forming a 501(c) (3) eventually, some will go to tech stuff, and some will go to research, etc.

So here is what I ask from you – Please be my eyes, ears, and extra hands.

If you know of information that needs to be spread – send it to me via the Contact Us Page and I’ll post it. For example:
Special Olympics events
Teen Club Events
School Board meetings dealing with Special Ed
Seminars for parents of Special Needs kids
Anything that our Village needs to know

If you have services that you would like to promote let me know:
Would you like to develop an online video course for our Village, I can share resources to help you do that. It’s a great marketing tool! We can even discuss asking for a small donation to offset your cost and ours.

Do you have questions or concerns that you would like help with? Send them in and we can help each other. There will also be a forum in addition to the blog but I have to learn how to install it first. (Anyone out there with great tech skills that can help? We’ll pay you with free promotion for your business!)

Shameless Promotion for a Good Cause:
I am in the process of launching my own Internet businesses so I know a lot about this. I am currently working on four online training programs to teach me more. I am developing a training program for Virtual Assistants and I am working with three partners on a membership site. I have worked with entrepreneurs from literally all over the world for over four years who support themselves and their families through sites like this. I know a lot about it and what I don’t know, well I know where to go for help.

I just need you to tell me what you need help with so I can get it on the site and maybe contribute some time, energy and funds to help spread the word. This needs to be a grassroots effort – it needs to be supported by our whole Special Families Village. This is our Village, not my Village.

For a picture of what I want this to grow to, please visit StartUp Nation (www.startupnation.com). There you will see a community for Entrepreneurs that mirrors my vision for Our Special Families Village. There are resources, tools, and information in a variety of formats (text, audio and video) on every topic you could imagine for the budding Entrepreneur.

StartUp Nation is free to its members. It is supported by Affiliate Marketing and advertising which we can definitely do in addition to donations. For example: Let’s say there’s a great book out on helping kids cope with a Special Needs sibling. We post a review with a link via Amazon and make a percentage of the sales. Or maybe an Occupational Therapy Clinic wants to place a banner ad for $25.00 a month.

Ultimately, I want a Village that is as well known internationally as Coke and MacDonald’s. A Global Village with links to Local Villages. A resource that every teacher, every doctor, every service provider knows and when they meet with a new family they say, “Hey do you know about The Special Families Village? Just go to OurSpecialFamiliesVillage.net (or whatever our URL ends up being) for great information. You can even go to the Villages section and find our local Village.”

Do you remember how you felt when you first entered this world of Special Needs services? Wouldn’t it be amazing to immediately walk into a community of people who truly empathize with what you are feeling? Who support and care for you as much as you support and care for your Special Needs Family member? We can give that to each other and we can give that to new families who feel lost and fearful and alone and hopeless.

The best information I receive on resources for Matthew is from other people with a Special Needs Family Member. But at best it is fragmented and I spend hours in frustration searching for information. A search on Google for Speech Therapy yields 9,860,000 results! Great, the information is there but I would spend my next two lifetimes researching it. Our Special Families Village is an opportunity for us to help each other through the maze not only with information but with love.

We hope to see you in the Village and please – help us spread the word!

Sandy and Matthew Pearson

Villagers

P.S. Please share your suggestions, questions, comments or whatever you want to share in the comment section below. If you would like to keep it private, please go to the Contact Us page. Thanks!