Education
Volunteer Advocacy Project
The Volunteer Advocacy Project trains volunteer advocates to provide instrumental and affective support to parents of children with disabilities. In this training, participants will learn more about special education law and advocacy strategies. At the end of the training, each participant will shadow an advocate at a special education meeting. Following graduation from the program, you will be linked with a family of a child with a disability. Each volunteer advocate is expected to work with, at least, four families, at the completion of the project.
This is a comprehensive 11-week training to be held in the Fall of 010 (9/11, 9/18, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/30, 11/13). Each training session will last 6 hours (9:00AM - 3:00PM CST, 10:00PM - 4:00PM EST). The training will include a binder of materials including passages from: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, State law, No Child Left Behind, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Additionally, the participants will be given copies of each training session’s powerpoints along with relevant materials. For each training session, the participant will be expected to read pertinent materials. This will encourage full participation at the training sessions. The training will be held on the Vanderbilt campus in The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. The training will also be video-conferenced to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, LifeLine, Inc in Chattanooga and West Tennessee Healthcare in Jackson. For further information and to register please contact Lisa Mattheiss at 423-622-4007 or
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CARE (Chattanooga Area Resource & Education) Project
The CARE (Chattanooga Area Resource & Education) Project provides workshops and training to support parents of children with disabilities for the purpose of empowering families by providing the necessary training and resources in the IDEA to become active partners in their child's education process and programming. Collaborating with other organizations and agencies CARE workshops are provided in each of the six counties that CARE serves. All workshops are provide free of charge to families and are offered to professionals and educators for a nominal fee to cover material costs. In addition to workshops on the IDEA, topics also include disability specific and related issues. YOU are your child’s best advocate. Come and join other caregivers, families and professionals as you learn together to develop and hone your advocacy skills.
Space is limited and free meals and childcare (as available) are provided for those who pre-register.
Click here to download the CARE brochure.
Skill Builders
SKILL BUILDERS are lunch hour (noon to 1:00pm) mini workshops designed to give you additional resources and information to increase your child’s success at home and school. These workshops are designed to provide detailed information on issues that impact care or education of a child with a disability. Examples of workshops include designing visual schedules, developing a prompt hierarchy tool for your child’s IEP, learning how to “lace your IEP with literacy”, etc. These workshops will provide a take-away for your use at home and/or at school.
While we recommend that you attend the evening workshop series, it is not required prior to attending SKILL BUILDERS.
Space is limited. Free lunches are provided for those who pre-register.
Workshop Topics
Special Education Basic Rights under IDEA
IEP Development
504
Transition and Early Childhood
Transition to Adulthood
Inclusion & Least Restrictive Environment
Assessments & Evaluations
Literacy
Conflict Resolution
Disability/Diagnosis Specific Training
• ADD/ADHD
• Access to Education: Epilepsy
• Access to Education: Autism
• Autism
• Spina Bifida
• Down Syndrome
• Non-Verbal Learning Disorder
• Learning Disabilities
Response to Intervention
Extended School Year
Functional Behavior Assessments & Behavior Intervention Plans
Guardianship & Conservatorship
Financial & Estate Planning
Independent Living
Modifications & Accommodations
Medical & Education Record Keeping
Prompt Hierarchy
Developing a Visual Schedule
Other topics as requested
