Strategies For Serving All Families Through Family Resource Programs

Strategies for Serving All Families Through Family Resource Programs

by Dr. Sharon Hope Irwin

Most family resource program staff and boards say they are open to all families, but a recent national survey by FRP Canada revealed that of the 552 programs which responded, only 40 percent served children with special needs. How, then, can we encourage families of children with special needs to participate?

At a 1993 FRP Canada workshop held in the Atlantic region, Debra Martell, a parent advocate, spoke from personal experience about why it is critical for families of young children with disabilities to be part of programs for all families: "When I need information about cerebral palsy, I will turn to the Cerebral Palsy Association and to my paediatrician. But when I want information about Shawn, I need the typical setting and so do other parents of children with disabilities. It's so easy to forget, or never learn, about the child-as-a-child, not about the disability. Despite his challenges, Shawn has the likes and dislikes and dreams and fears of other children his age. Family resource programs would do an enormous service to all families if they reached out to welcome families with children with disabilities."

Those who participated in the workshop agreed that "inclusion" is an appropriate principle for family resource programs and suggested various strategies and tools that might increase attendance by parents and children with special needs. These include:

ensuring that informational materials always state that all children, regardless of level or type of disability, are welcome;
that photographs and drawings on the walls include children with visible disabilities;
that some adaptive or modified toys and equipment be present and visible;
that local physicians, public health nurses and disability groups be informed of this principle; that local early intervention (infant development) programs be approached to work collaboratively;
that staff receive some training in inclusionary principles;
that general information sessions about the benefits of inclusion for everybody be promoted and presented regularly.

Dr. Sharon Hope Irwin, Director of SpeciaLink, is an advocate for accessible, affordable, high quality accountable and inclusive community programs for young children and their families in Canada

Source: Play and Parenting Connections,Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs, Special Issue 1995