(2008) California Speech-Language-Hearing Association Public Service Award for Support for Families Videographer: CSLHA Compressed by: Mike Durkin Transcripts: Natalie Oropeza Time of Video:00:04:57 High Quality QuickTime video (~18 MB) *Music Playing* Juno Duenas, Executive Director: Support for Families is an agency that provides information, education, and parent to parent support for families with kids with any disability. Nancy Robinson, Speech-Language Pathologist: Negotiating the maze of services, trying to find services for your child, particularly in early intervention, and particularly for families that don’t speak English. Ummm, there are just so many barriers and time delays, and possibilities for confusion, and, uh, isolation that some families experience. And all of the families that I have talked to over the last year, have said, I would ask them, you know, what made the difference for you? How did you get started on this journey of finding services? And they would always say, “Oh! Support for Families.”. *Laughter* Deborah Dalton, Parent: It’s a great networking tool, that, where the resources are there. Lee, Laurie, and Julia Strawn, Family—Julia: You have a place to be honest about your experience, and that’s so valuable. Stella Kuo, Parent: They are there to support me and let me know that I am not alone. Deborah Dalton, Parent: It’s just an avenue here you can always get help. Nina Boyle, Family Resource Center Program Manager: As a mother myself, it’s a fabulous opportunity to help get access to the information, resources, and support, umm, that they need in order to make good decisions for themselves around what they feel is appropriate for their child. Nancy Robinson, Speech-Language Pathologist: And it’s not just a referral agency that hooks a family up and says, okay, you have your services now. They stay with families and their whole support. Their…The word support really says it all. It’s supporting families to learn about the services, to learn their rights, but to learn in a way that helps them to be actual partners at the table. Deborah Dalton, Parent: I was told what the law was one thing from the school district; and they told me differently. So I found out what Support for Families told me was actually the law. Stella Kuo, Parent: What Support for Families has done, um leads us to the right direction, read and learn about the law, and interpret for ourselves and talk other families and other advocate to know what actually is. And be able to advocate for ourselves, for our children. *Music Playing* Juno Duenas, Executive Director: I’m a parent of four children and my third was born with severe disabilities, and I think she was nine months old when I got hooked up with Support for Families. I started going to a support group that was run by Helen Racine and Joan Cassel who were the co-founders of Support for Families; and it was an extraordinary opportunity for me to be around other families. Umm, and being around other families normalized the idea of having a child with severe disabilities. Sonia Valenzuela, Parent Mentor/Education Coordinator: I think it’s very helpful to have a parent of the phone line; because that’s how I started out seven years ago, I was on the phone line. And as the parent mentor coordinator, working with parents, my co-workers and I, for other parents. Umm, helped me learn the system; I mean that’s how I learned to help my youngest daughter, with mild CP, how to get ready for her doctors appointments, how to request for assessments, how to follow up. And, by learning that myself, I was able to teach other families how to do the same. Lee, Laurie, and Julia Strawn, Family—Julia: One of the biggest things that has helped us, as a family, we, I started attending a parent to parent support group and met a lot of other parents going through the same sort to of journey that we were. So, instantly, we felt, all of us, as a family, we could feel: we are not alone and we have access to a great deal of information. Juno Duenas, Executive Director: And being able to meet up with those families, and hear their stories, and be able to laugh together, and cry together, and it taught me that my daughter is not a tragedy. But that in fact, she is different, and that we’re different, and that with enough services, and building a network of support, she can have a life just as wonderful, and full of being as anyone else. *Music Playing* Lee, Laurie, and Julia Strawn, Family: Congratulations Support for Families of Children with Disabilities! Deborah Dalton, Parent: Congratulations Support for Families! Stella Kuo, Parent: Congratulations Support for Families! Nancy Robinson, Speech-Language Pathologist: Congratulations Support for Families!