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Local FSNs | Services | Resources | Search | About Us | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The
mission of Family Support Network of North Carolina is to promote and
provide support for families with children who have special needs.
Family Support Network of North Carolina promotes and provides support for families with children who have special needs. Families are in a unique position to offer information and support to other families. An experienced family member can share the most practical advice and help a parent navigate the complex service system. Having support can make it easier for families to experience the joy and satisfaction that can come from parenting a child with special needs. This Parent-to-Parent support is available through local, affiliated Family Support Network programs across the state and through the Central Directory of Resources. Family Support Network of North Carolina promotes and provides family support through its family support services; education and outreach activities; research and evaluation; and other projects.
Family Support Network of North Carolina includes affiliated local Family Support Network programs located across the state. These community-based family support organizations are housed in local or regional hospitals, regional Children's Developmental Services Agencies (CDSAs), local Arcs, and local Smart Start Partnerships. Programs are funded with both public and private funds. While the local organizations vary somewhat, they are all affiliates of Family Support Network of North Carolina and engage in similar family support activities. These include parent-to-parent matching, whereby parents with concerns about their child and/or family can talk with other parents with similar experiences and concerns. Support parents have participated in a training program to prepare them to provide appropriate guidance and support. Local programs offer support groups and workshops for families and service providers, and they make presentations to increase public awareness of disability-related issues. Many of the Program Coordinators are themselves family members with children with disabilities who have made use of the service system. They are strongly committed to effective support for families and believe that this support is best provided by others who have had similar experiences. The Central Directory of Resources is a free resource for family members and service providers. Callers can obtain information about specific disabilities and the resources and organizations that serve children and families. Through our toll-free phone line (800-852-0042) and our web site www.fsnnc.org, information and referral sources are available to family members, service providers, students, and others across the state. Callers can speak with a Resource Specialist about a family's particular issues and get information about resources and services. Callers may receive printed materials about disabilities and related issues. A Spanish-speaking Resource Specialist is available and some printed information is available in Spanish.
Educational activities of Family Support Network of North Carolina are available to family members and service providers. Service providers can receive training at both pre-service and in-service levels. University students and Pediatric and Family Medicine Residents can learn about family-centered care and community-based support. Early Connections is a statewide initiative to develop an extensive database of training partners. Through the Central Directory of Resources, callers can be matched to people with expertise in early childhood topics and faculty, trainers, families, and administrators looking for assistance and training partners. Service providers in the Children's Developmental Services Agencies (CDSAs) can participate in the North Carolina Early Intervention Mentor Program through which experienced service providers are paired with less-experienced service providers. Through this mentoring relationship, service providers can enhance their skills and learn more about providing services. They may also learn directly from families about their experiences raising their child with special needs and using the service system. This program is designed to enhance the skills of new service providers and help ensure the continuous high quality of service provision.
Family Support Network of North Carolina is committed to evaluating the programmatic activities of the organization and the benefits of these activities to the community. Family Support Network of North Carolina utilizes a variety of methods to evaluate and assist program development, implementation, and adaptation. Family Support Network of North Carolina also participates in local and state committees working to improve process and outcome evaluation efforts across the State.
The
Strengthening
Families with Children Who Have Developmental Disabilities: OneStop
for Family Support project is
developing
a system of family
support activities to ensure the integration of resources, activities,
and services to support unserved and underserved families with children
who have or are at risk of having developmental disabilities.
The goals
of the proposed project are to strengthen linkages among state-level
organizations to benefit families with children with developmental disabilities;
to establish a model of service coordination that involves parents serving
families; to pilot the OneStop for Strengthening Families, an
information and referral system to serve as a single point of entry
for families; and to facilitate statewide replication of the OneStop
for Strengthening Families. PAST PROJECTS The Strengthening Families with Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Model for Integrating Resources, Activities, and Services to Support Families project established a planning process in Pitt, Wilson, Edgecombe, and Nash counties in Eastern North Carolina and at the state level. The goals of the project were to strengthen family support for unserved and underserved families with children with developmental disabilities; to increase availability of and access to culturally appropriate support for families of diverse backgrounds; and to integrate formal and informal supports for families at both state and local levels. The goal of the From Foster Care to Adoption project was to promote system-level changes to increase the number of adoptions for children with developmental disabilities for whom reunification is not a viable option. A series of forums were conducted and a Working Conference implemented to identify challenges in the adoption process. These groups included foster and adoptive parents of children with developmental disabilities. They also included state and local representatives who have knowledge about policy issues and/or the authority to institute system level changes. Recommendations for system-level changes were developed, and findings disseminated to organizations involved in promoting the adoption of children with developmental disabilities. Family Support Network of North Carolina (FSN-NC) provided Family Support for the Medical Home Initiative to support the efforts of the NC Division of Public Health to develop a system of medical homes across the state by working collaboratively with the Division of Public Health, and selected pediatric practices to establish pilot projects in two North Carolina counties. The mission is to provide a Medical Home for all children with Special Health Care Needs. A “medical home” is not a place, but a system of care where children with special health care needs receive quality health care that is accessible, coordinated, comprehensive, continuous, family-centered, and culturally competent. In these projects, the Family Support Network of North Carolina provided support and training to Parent Partners in pediatric practices and promoted the Medical Home Initiative across NC for children with special health care needs and their families. The Medical Home Initiative is a National Project supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Center of Medical Homes for Children with Special Needs. The Family Advocacy Project provided an opportunity for families to receive basic training to better advocate for their children and themselves. The Family Advocacy Workshops assisted families in articulating their concerns so that they are able to work in partnership with others to meet their needs.
The
state office of Family Support Network of North Carolina is located
within the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and is a unit of the UNC-CH
School of Medicine. The organization operates in collaboration with
the Clinical Center for the Study
of Development and Learning. The state office facilitates the activities
of the local affiliates, maintains the Central Directory of Resources,
and coordinates and conducts educational activities. Through all of
these programs, Family Support Network of North Carolina serves thousands
of families and service providers across North Carolina each year.
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©
Family Support Network of North Carolina, 2003
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Map
and Directions to FSN-NC (Adobe PDF)
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