May 2014 Alliance Meeting Flyer

May 2014 Meeting Flyer – Downloadable PDF

Corrected Web Address for “U.S. Department of Justice Reached A Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island”

 

 

 U.S. Department of Justice Reached A Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island”

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/April/14-crt-350.html

U.S. Department of Justice Reached A Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island

 

Department of Justice Reaches Landmark Americans with Disabilities Act Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/April/14-crt-350.html

 

People-First Language…the order of our words make a difference.

When interacting with disabled individuals it’s extremely important to think before we speak and to put the person before the disability.

 

I Define Me… Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

How do you define yourself. Please leave comment on this post with a word that defines you. Share this post so that other will know to “spread the word to end the word”.

March is developmental disabilities awareness month. The Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance believes that all people have the right to define who they are and that the “r” word should never be used to describe anyone. Individuals with cognitive disabilities and other developmental disabilities are capable of enjoying life’s experiences and using the “r” word is hurtful and harmful. I define me!

HGTA Service Provider Form

The Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance is excited to announce that we preparing to develop a database of services for disabled individuals in our service areas. Once it’s created the database will be on our main website.

We need your help with collecting service provider information for the database.  Completed forms can be emailed to hgtransitions@gmail.com or faxed to the GLRS office at 478-277-4065 

Click Here to download the Service Provider Form.

Submission Deadline is February 13, 2013!! 

Examples of Places to Contact:

•  Family Connections Contact 
•  Health Department
•  Public Transit Information
•  Social Security Office
• Public School System Contact Information /Private School Information
• Department of Family and Children Services 
• Local Social Clubs /Organization within the community (Lions Club, Pilot Club, Kiwanis Club, Civitan Club, Junior Leagues, Rotary Club etc.) 
• Chamber of Commerce Information 
• Recreation Departments

“Independent and Community Living” Parent to Parent webinar by Amy Pileggi

Title: Independent and Community Living

Date: January 23, 2014 at 4:00pm

Presenter: Amy Pileggi

Do you enjoy doing things independently? Do you want to get involved in sports, recreation or social activities? Do you want to learn how to volunteer? Then this is the webinar for you! You’re invited to listen to Amy Pileggi as she talks about life as an individual with a disability, her involvement in her community and her journey to become employed.

This is a completely free webinar so go click the link below to become a listener. On the morning of the presentation everyone who has registered will emailed some great handouts put together by Amy. So be sure to sign up by the day before the presentation to get on the list to receive the handouts.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5460767735806209537 

HGTA Symposium REMINDER!

Hi everyone,

Don’t forget about the upcoming HGTA Transition Symposium that will be on September 30th! Go to http://www.ciclt.net/sn/resa/recl_application.aspx?CL_ID=100731&ClientCode=ecglrs to register for the symposium. We’re excited about everything we have planned and are looking forward to seeing you all.

PDF Version of Flyer: Transition Symposium Flyer

A Transition Symposium Presented by The Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance

The Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance is proud and excited to announce that we will be hosting a Transition Symposium on September 30, 2013. Please see the flyer below for all the details and click here to download a PDF copy of the event flyer.  

Happy July 4th

Happy July 4th from the Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance. We hope everyone has a great a safe holiday. 

Dublin / Laurens County Juneteenth Celebration

The Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance is going to be participating in the first annual Dublin / Laurens County Juneteenth Celebration on June 15th. Check out the flyers on this post and our HGTA Events Page for more details.

In addition to all the booths, music, fun and games there will also be the 1st Annual Unity Scholarship Car Show.

Here are downloadable copies of all the flyers & registration forms:

Flyers

Juneteenth_Celebration

Juneteenth_Celebration Juneteenth_car_show_Flyer

Registration Forms 

Juneteeth_registration_form

Car_Show_Registration_form

Keys to Help Your Teen Get A First Job

Click on here to download a PDF copy of the flyer.

HGTA Surveys

Good Afternoon,

Today I’m going to share a new page on our blog titled, “HGTA Surveys”. This page is going to be dedicated to providing surveys for the HGTA blog and the alliance as a whole. Click here to go to HGTA Survey’s page. When you visit the page today you’ll find a link to our Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance Awareness survey.

Your HGTA Blogger,

 

RSS Feed

Dear Readers,

Today I received a number of comments from people asking about being able to read posts via RSS Feed. Therefore, I am working on getting that option up and running. Utilizing an RSS Feed is something that is new to me so please bear with me. In the meantime you can visit our blog from any computer. Be sure to follow our blog via email and also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

In addition to following us online please go to the homepage / welcome page of this blog and complete the Heart of Georgia Transition Alliance Awareness Survey!!! Finally if there’s a transition related topic you’d like to know more about leave me a comment and it will be reviewed and possibly written about on the blog. Thank you again to all of our faithful readers.

Your Blogger,

Amy

Parent to Parent Blogger, Margaret

Good Evening Readers, 

I’d like to remind you to visit fellow alliance member, Margaret blog on Parent to Parent’s website. She shares experiences as the mother of a disabled individuals along with discussing topics that disabled individuals face. Her latest posts are entitled, “The River” and “Inclusion”. Click here to go directly to her blog.

Your HGTA Blogger, 

Autismspeaks.org

As the month of Autism Awareness comes to a close I’d like to recommend a few resources offered on Autism Speaks’ website. 

What is Autism? It is a disorder that has to do with the brain and there are different degrees of Autism. Click here to read a complete article on what autism is and the autism spectrum, the causes, etc. 

Transitioning from High School to Adulthood: Autism Speak offers a great tool kit to guide individuals with autism and their families threw the transition from high school to adulthood. Click here to view the FREE downloadable Transition tool kit. 

Employment Tool Kit: Autism Speaks also offers an employment tool kit full of great resources on the ins and outs of becoming employed. Click here to view the FREE downloadable Employment tool kit. 

Sign Up For The 1st Annual Parent to Parent of Georgia 5K!!!

Registration is now open for the 1st Annual “Soul Shine 5K…Helping Children with Disabilities Shine in GA”  benefiting Parent to Parent of Georgia!!  For online registration click on the link below. What are you waiting for…register NOW…

Anchor of Hope Foundation Presents

Anchor of Hope Foundation is hosting it’s 4th Annual Autism Awareness Festival and 5K Trail Race & Family Fun Run/Walk on April 27,2013!

              Dayspring Church Campus                                       1045 Hwy 41 South                      Forsyth, GA 31029

 

Schedule:

• 7:00am: Race Registration

• 8:00am: 5K Trail Race

• 9:00: Awards Ceremony

• 9:30am: Family Fun Run/Walk

• 8:00am-2:00pm: FREE Family Fun Festival

 

The Festival will include-

Children’s play area with:

• Inflatables

• Face Painting

• Crafts

• Games

• Hay Ride

• Dunking Booth

 

Community Resource Fair with information from:

• Local Resources

• Local Businesses

• Local Churches

• Craft Vendors

• Food Vendors

 

Live Entertainment From:

The Door Holders and other local talent

Would you like to be a:

• Sponsor- Click here

• Resource/Craft/Business/Church Vendor- Click here

• Food Vendor- Click Here

• Volunteer- Click here

• Racer- Click here

For more information visit our website at www.anchorofhopefoundation.com or call us at(478) 955-0854

With 1 in 50 school age children now being diagnosed with Autism, we hope that this festival will promote awareness, education, and understanding of this disorder, while providing resources and a fun family atmosphere where everyone is welcome regardless of ability!

We can’t do this alone. We need your help!

Please come out and support us as a sponsor, vendor, volunteer or runner.

You could be the missing piece in someone’s life!

 

All proceeds go to help Anchor of Hope in their ministry to individuals with disabilities and their families through our scholarships, Parent’s Night Out, and providing connections in the community.

For more information about what we do, please visit our website or give us a call we would love to talk to you!

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness month and throughout this month I’m going to be writing posts about what autism is, transitioning from high school and individuals with autism gaining employment.

The Stares of Strangers

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Many times our society will “judge the book by its cover” when it comes to disabled people. Society thinks that since the person can’t get around the same way as everyone else (meaning they use a wheelchair, braces, crutches, etc.) or has neurological issues that cause them to act differently. There’s no way that they’ll ever be able to do the things that your average person can do. However, as someone who is disabled I want to tell you that just because you may have a disability that doesn’t mean you can’t do wonderful things with your life. There were many great people in history and to today who have had to deal with various disabilities but still went on to have great careers. Some of those people are: 

Beethoven became deaf by age 26 and yet he went on to write and perform several great symphonies. Just like any other disabled person may require certain modifications in order achieve their goals. Beethoven sawed off the legs of his piano so he could feel the vibrations of the music.

Hank Williams, Sr. who was a great country music singer in the late 40s to the early 50s was born with the Spina Bifida Occulta. Occulta is the mildest of the 3 version of Spina Bifida. In 1949 he had his first #1 record and began setting a standard for future country music artists. 

Henry Winkler stared as “The Fonz” in the 1970’s show Happy Days. Henry struggled with an un-diagnosed learning disability all throughout his childhood and teenage years. At age 31 he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. Most recently he teamed up with Lin Oliver to write children’s books about a 4th grade boy who has dyslexia. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was diagnosed with Polio in 1921. He made multiple attempts to cure his Polio however after a time he finally resigned to the fact that there wasn’t anything he could do to make it go away. Roosevelt attended the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions to nominate New York governor Al Smith for president. Attending the conventions increased his national exposure. The more exposed he became the greater he desired to hide his Polio from the public eye. He trained himself to use leg braces to walk short distances. He also used a wheelchair in private.

President Roosevelt was extremely careful to never be seen in his wheelchair in public because he didn’t want others to see him as weak. However, I want to encourage you to not let the possible stares of others bother you or discourage you from going after your dreams. Sometimes they mean nothing bad by staring, lots of times they may be genuinely curious. So I’d like to challenge you to go after your dreams and show others what you’re capable of. 

I’d like to conclude today’s post by sharing a personal experience I recently had. First of all let me explain that I LOVE being outside. I enjoy going on walking / hiking trails and to go camping. I recently spent a weekend with some dear friends and one afternoon we decided to go a walking trail at the Reynolds Nature Preserve in Morrow, GA.  

We quickly learned that the terrain was going to be challenging to push my chair on, but that didn’t make us want to give up. It was such beautiful afternoon we continued having fun and we created our own strategy for getting from trail to trail. When we reached a fork in the path one of them would stay with me and the other would scout out the next 2 branches of the trail. Then based on what they found we’d take the easier option. They occasionally traded back and forth with pushing my chair so neither of them became overly tired. Over the course of our time out there we got quite a few stares from other people. But I know that their stares were possibly coming from them wondering why we had a wheelchair out there. But regardless of their reasons for staring at us we didn’t let them deter us from trying something new and getting to enjoy the beautiful nature preserve. 

Just like we didn’t let the stares of others discourage us out there on those walking trails. I want to once again challenge you to not let others discourage you from attempting to reach your post high school dreams of either attending college or becoming employed.

References

Henry Winkler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Winkler

Franklin D. Roosevelt

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#Polio

Hank Williams Sr. 

http://www.gactv.com/gac/ar_az_hank_williams_sr/article/0,,gac_26936_4805323,00.html

Famous People with Disabilities 

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml 

Reynolds Nature Preserve 

http://www.reynoldsnaturepreserve.org/