Down the Rabbit Hole-

Spring Family Engagement Event

We had a wonderful time at the inaugural spring Family Engagement event. Families joined us for a day of practicing developmental skills in a real world setting. One of our goals with the Family Engagement Series is for our enrolled children to have experiences that are comfortable and meaningful to them, just like their peers. To make this happen, it's crucial that families with children of different abilities have a supportive community where they feel accepted and included. A couple of our board members, Mr. Jim Hamer and Mrs. Patty Nations, also stopped by to meet some families and join in the fun.

The Family Engagement Series events are attended by volunteers from the community, including organizations like SASO (Student Athletes Serving Others), the UTHSCSA, and various school groups. This time, we had volunteers from the UTSA Pre-PA Society, Health Careers High School, SASO, the PTS Program at Concorde Career College, and the UTHSCSA School of Nursing. We always have Easter Seals staff and their family members who volunteer and support us at these events too.

The Family Engagement Series provides a great opportunity for our families to interact with these volunteers and work together towards creating awareness and understanding within our communities for inclusivity and accessibility. This is highly important as it helps to promote a sense of inclusivity and accessibility for all.

These Family Engagement events wouldn't be possible without the generous support of HEB, who gave this series a $5000 grant this year. We were also just awarded a $500 grant from SASO this past week. This grant is special, as SASO just started volunteering at our events in October at the Trick-or-Treat event, but recognized quickly how important these events are. This year, SASO awarded three $500 grants to nonprofits where their members had volunteered. The Easter Seals ECI Family Engagement Series was one of the three chosen.