Welcome to Staff Spotlight! Here we honor special members of the FACT staff who help our community and give them the kudos they deserve! This month, we celebrate Destinie Hernandez. Destinie supports one-on-one with college student Christian on areas like mobility training and college prep like campus navigation and safety plans and strategies. FACT recently received a call from Christian’s mother about how Destinie has touched Christian’s and her lives. With her permission, we’d like to share that wonderful message:
By Linda Andron-Ostrow, LCSW Yes, he is a talking bear that’s has starred in two movies. But the TED I’m referring to is a series of short talks of 15 to 18 minutes on various subjects with the aim to teach and expand people’s minds. You may have seen TED’s videos all over the Internet and make up conferences all over the world. TED himself was not available as he works for a corporation. But he did think that the idea of…
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Thanks to all who attended in person or online. If you would like to view some of the presentations, contact [email protected] This was the full line-up: October 14, 2016 8 to 9 AM Check In/Welcome: Marc Haupert, Interim Executive Director 9: 00 AM Linda Andron-Ostrow: Opening Remarks 9:45 AM Susan Schmidt Lackner, MD: “Biomedical Interventions: Healing the Whole Child” 10: 20 AM 15 MINUTE BREAK 10:35 AM Erika…
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Weylin Wagnon has been part of the FACT family for a long time. From a dedicated sibling to GAP staff member, he has been a beloved part of our tight-knit community. It is with a heavy heart that after over a decade of support and service, we bade farewell to Weylin as he pursues an exciting new path. Weylin has touched the lives of so many of our community and we will all miss him greatly. Read below for how GAP…
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It’s that time of year where summer fun comes to a close and it’s time for our children to hit the books for the school year. And as school comes with many challenges for students with special needs, here are a few tips on how to make our kids’ school years as amazing as possible!
“Rather than being better than someone else, try and be better than yourself.” I am a full-time student at Santa Monica College, so I try and focus on my studies. In my free time I like to volunteer at the Meals on Wheels program, I feel like it gives my life some meaning, and after doing it I feel like I’ve really accomplished something. I am trying my hardest to focus on school, and to learn how to make digital art.…
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William Shakespeare once wrote “parting is such sweet sorrow”, and we at FACT know this feeling well. Our wonderful President Karen Heads is stepping down after many years of wonderful service to our community. She and our other outgoing board members will continue to serve in FACT’s leadership on committees, and so wish them the best of luck, and welcome our newest board members with open arms! Click below the cut for more pictures of our 2016 board dinner!
By Zoey Giesberg, MSW I recently wrote about disability in the media (or rather how disability is portrayed as a tragedy by media). In it, I said that stories about disability are mostly about how a disabled person affects others, and how all involved parties “struggle” with it and have to “persevere”. And I wrote that the remedy to this is to tell stories from the disabled character’s perspective and promote it like whoa. I honestly didn’t think that I’d…
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By Linda Andron-Ostrow, Director of Programs and Services I would like to thank everyone who read our last email blast announcing my position change, and mostly to the many people who responded. It really highlights the fact that at FACT, we are a family. To clarify, I am not retiring but rather transitioning. Transition has many meanings to many people, but what all transitions have in common is change—ideally a change that is gradual and keeps supports in place. The word succession contains…
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ARCA Statement on AB 1715 – Advocacy Needed! On January 26, 2016, California State Assembly member Chris Holden (Pasadena) introduced AB 1715 to the Assembly. AB 1715 was created, in his words, “to protect autistic children, as well as others who can benefit from behavior analytic services, from those who falsely claim that they are qualified to practice behavior analysis.” This bill would require legal documentation of training and competence in applied behavioral analysis therapy (ABA) for practitioners and allow California…
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