families network

[Guest guest]

Hello Families Network! We had a wonderful meeting on October 5th where I

received some extremely helpful feedback on the Family Advocacy Program.

Thanks to those of you who came and shared your thoughts and ideas - your

insights were invaluable! Some of the main themes that came up in the

meeting included:

Increasing outreach efforts to involve new families as well as the larger

community in our advocacy efforts

More training opportunities on how to advocate, the issues, and other topics

relevant to families

Improving collaboration with the local chapters of The Arc

The group also had some great feedback about our annual Family Advocacy Day

at the State House, and the Families Network emails and action alerts. I am

working on ways to implement the wide range of wonderful suggestions so keep

an eye out for some new things happening over the coming year.

Since the focus of our Family Advocacy Program meeting was not on the issues

or advocacy agenda, I have created an online survey for you to fill out that

we will use to help shape our advocacy priorities. I know that many of you

have issues that are of particular importance to you or that you care deeply

about and we want our advocacy efforts to address these concerns. I have

designed the survey so that we can not only gather this important

information, but can also use it as an outreach tool to bring more families

into the Network. Please go to www.surveymonkey.com/arcfamilyadvocacy to

fill out the survey, and forward this link to everyone you know who is

affected by developmental disabilities, including any disability groups or

organizations you can think of. As always, please don't hesitate to contact

me if you have any questions. Thanks in advance for your participation!

Denbigh Shelton

Director, Family Advocacy Program

The Arc of New Jersey

985 Livingston Avenue

North Brunswick, NJ 08902

(732) 246-2525 ext. 49

dshelton@...

www.arcfamilyadvocacy.org