Advocacy - Being a Voice for your Family and Child!
Our advocacy expert for this spring's summit online and real world are extremely experienced, practical and compassionate people who are truly called to help families navigate through the school system. We all know what it is like to try to figure out the "jargon" of the IEPs, IPRCs, frankly for me even the report cards. I find myself saying what does this really mean? When are you able to fight back or not? What rights do you and your family have to be able to have the best school experience for your child can be very intimidating.
Our first speaker is Susan Schenk one of the Shift Your Thinking founders. As some of you know, I originally hired Susan and was a participant in her Invincible Mama program over two years ago. Susan's tender approach to helping me go through the necessary steps of thought, education and plan to be a confident advocate for my children was life changing for me and my children. Susan will be sharing her experiences as an OT in school system and what accommodations mean to kids with a learning difference.
Our second speaker is Hanada Kardassopoulous who I met through a good friend of mine. Her expertise, passion and support have empowered and educated parents. She is a full-time principal in the Peel region. She is the founder of Pathways for All Inc. Her mission is to be an advocate and support for any child, adolescent or family as they seek the most suitable pathways to achieve their goal(s). She works in partnership with psychologists, speech and language pathologists, pediatricians, physio and occupational therapists, and IBI/ABA therapists to understand and apply the assessment outcomes to the educational and home settings. Hanada is going to run a practical workshop on identifying 5 key things to do to uncover your child's potential.
We would love to hear your experiences of having to be an advocate for your child - was there someone that helped you or was it sheer determination to just not take no for an answer?