Family Support Network of North Carolina

During our stay at Chapel Hill we got the great opportunity to gain profound and highly valuable insight into the work of the Family Support Network of North Carolina (FSNNC). One of our instructors, who is the director of this network, and her very kind team members made it possible for us to attend several meetings of the Network and also to visit two of its local programs.

The Family Support Network of North Carolina is a statewide network of affiliated local programs, which provide support for families with children who have special needs.

Since 1985 FSNNC promotes the involvement of family members in the development and implementation of family-centered practices in North Carolina. Furthermore, it provides parents and professionals with information and linkage for services and support. FSNNC operates the Central Directory of Resources (CDR), which is a computerized directory of resources and services for children with special needs: http://fsp.unc.edu/referral/parents. Furthermore, FSNNC supports the development of a statewide network of community-based parent-to-parent programs.

These local programs offer a variety of services and activities:

- Parent-to-Parent support

- Information and referral

- Sibling workshops

- Support groups

- Workshops and training for families and service providers

All services are confidential and free of charge.

It was extremely interesting and beneficial for us to come to know the Parent-to-Parent support. Parents seeking information, resources and support are connected with experienced and trained Support Parents who have had similar family and disability experiences. Through these one to one matches the Support Parents provide emotional support to families and assist them in finding information and resources.

The FSNNC local program affiliates facilitate parent "matches" and provide follow-up support to each match. Moreover, they provide Support Parent Training using an established curriculum. The training includes for example an introduction to Parent-to-Parent support and its effectiveness. Communication skills and understanding confidentiality are other important aspects of the curriculum.

The Family Support Network of North Carolina is a member of Parent-to-Parent USA Alliance. Parent-to-Parent USA is a national organization of state Parent-to-Parent programs. Visit the Parent-to-Parent USA (P2PUSA) website: http://www.p2pusa.org/

Another very important service of the FSNNC is the provision of information and referrals. Families get help in finding information as well as services and get connected with resources in their community. They also get the possibility to learn more about the disability or diagnosis of their child.

The FSNNC conducts comprehensive research and evaluation to determine the impact of program activities and to provide guidance in strengthening program effectiveness. We are very grateful that one of the responsible Network team members provided us insight into this field, especially the different outcome and output measures. Furthermore, she explained us the structure of the Network as well as the funding mechanisms. We profit a lot from her explications and really appreciate that she answered all our questions patiently and in great detail.

By attending the Network Development Council Meeting and the Meeting of the Local Programs’ Coordinators we got to know more about the organization and activities of the FSNCC as well as the current issues that impact the Network as well as the local programs. Each of the FSNNC members welcomed us warmly and shared their personal experiences with us.

In addition to that, we got to know the FSNNC’s projects Strengthening Military Families, which especially addresses the needs of military families. You will find more information about this very interesting project in one of our next posts.

Furthermore, we are really looking forward to visiting the Family Support Network of Eastern NC (Greenville) in December.

We are very thankful to have the great opportunity to learn more about the FSNNC, which provides a unique and valuable service for families with children who have special needs.  

Our recommendation: Visit the new website of the Family Support Network of North Carolina  

-> http://fsp.unc.edu/

Wright School Durham

In the middle of November we got the opportunity to take a guided tour at Wright School Durham. Wright School is  an excellent example showing how effective Re-Education programs can be. It provides cost-effective residential mental health treatment to North Carolina's children who are from six to twelve years of age. All children living there have  serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Wright School  Durham doesn´t only focus on the child, it also supports each child's family  in meeting their child's special needs in their home.

On our guided tour we visited the class, living, and sleeping rooms of the three different groups living there. Each group consists of about eight students living and learning together in a family-like atmosphere. All groups have a special group name like “The Olympians”, “The Royals” or “The Eagles”. Those names do not only emphasize the potential each  team member has,  they also create a strong sense of  togetherness.

Some students gave us a very personal and impressive insight in their lives at Wright School. They told us about their initial difficulties of being away from their families or not getting in with their peers. Despite all those initial difficulties all students agreed that they enjoy their time at Wright School a lot  and that they don´t want to leave that school.

Of course it was also very interesting getting to know the philosophy of Re-Education at Wright School based on its founder Nicholas Hobbs. There are 12 Key Principles of Re-Education. As we consider these principles very helpful we want to share them with you:

l. Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge

2. Trust between child and adult is essential...

3. Competence makes a difference, and children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, and especially at schoolwork.

4. Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.

5. Self-control can be taught and children and adolescents helped to manage their behavior without the development of psychodynamic insight.

6. Intelligence can be taught. Intelligence is a dynamic, evolving, and malleable capacity for making good choices in living.

7. Feelings should be nurtured, shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others ....

8. The group is very important to young people, and it can become a major source of instruction in growing up.

9. Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and confidence to troubled children and adolescents, whose lives are often in considerable disarray.

10. The body is the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.

11. Communities are important for children and youth, but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.

12. A child should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for the morrow.

Nicolas Hobbs still functions as a role model for  all teachers and counselors working at Wright School  and they try to live his principles in the daily interaction with the students.

In our opinion Wright School takes  a great approach in working with children with special needs.

Cultural Highlights

The aim of the GEDS program is not only to advance academically but also to get to know the culture of the host country. In this context, we went to the “art walk” (as previously described in our blog) several times to enjoy local art including architecture, paintings and pottery.

However, I (Andrea) wanted to become part of the American culture myself and got the great opportunity to join the UNC Symphony orchestra with a cello provided by the UNC music department. The orchestra consists of more than 100 members (strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion). Even the cello section has 18 (!) members, a number that impressively illustrates the orchestra´s size. Many students are music majors and play extraordinarily well and the whole orchestra is in a great shape! We rehearse twice a week and it is just wonderful to be part of this huge body of musicians. Our conductor is fantastic and very experienced – he works with us as professionally as with big philharmonic orchestras. I enjoy every rehearsal and profit a lot, both as a musician and as a person. During the last months I had the chance to experience myself that music really is an “international language” without borders and easily connects students from all over the world.

 Our first concert in October was my personal cultural highlight so far. We played Ravel´s Mother Goose Suite (sweet and quiet character) and Shotakovich´s 2^nd Symphony (with lots of power and brass), two pieces that stand in big contrast to each other. Our concert site was the famous Memorial Hall at the UNC campus, an ancient building with great atmosphere and acoustic. It was a great honor for me to play there. The other GEDS students and our instructors came to listen to the concert and also enjoyed this musical highlight with “the first GEDS artist” J. The concert was a great success and we even got standing ovations! By the time we practice hard for our second concert with Barber´s piano concerto (soloist will be a former UNC student) and Brahms´ Symphony no 2. The concert is going to take place on December 10^th, which is my last evening at the UNC before I fly back to Germany. Four months go by so quickly!

Apart from the orchestra, the UNC music department has a great variety of ensembles and concerts to offer. As one example, we watched the UNC Opera ensemble perform scenes from different Verdi operas like Mac Beth, Un Giorno Di Regno, Il Corsaro and the famous independence choir “Va pensiero” of Nabucco, which is a typical earworm all over the world. We were really impressed by the high quality of all the singers, their beautiful dresses and also their thespian abilities. It was a lovely evening with great melodies which we enjoyed very much!

A typical American cultural experience we never wanted to miss was a basketball game of the UNC Tar Heels. Our basketball team is really successful and even won the championship! So it was and absolute necessity go there J The game took place in the famous Smith Center, popularly referred to as the  “Dean Dome”. It was named after former UNC coach Dean E. Smith. The Dean Dome is really HUGE (more than 20 000 visitors fit in there) and the atmosphere was incredible. The basketball marching band, cheerleaders and the famous UNC mascot were there at the match, together with thousands of fans in the UNC color Carolina blue. We also experienced that in Chapel Hill basketball is a real family sport: many families went there with their little children who finally fell asleep and were carefully carried home by their loving Daddies. Everyone (from young to old) cheered and supported the UNC team in its home stadium. It was great!!! And our Team won J

One cultural experience follows the other – Chapel Hill has so much to offer! Next week there will be another personal highlight for us. Our first Thanksgiving! Our instructor was so kind to invite us to her house and is going to celebrate traditionally with Turkey and lots and lots of food. We are sure it will be a typical American celebration that we will never forget.

Last not least, we are going to visit the “Nutcracker” by the Carolina Ballet before we have to fly home to Germany. It will be one of our last opportunities to absorb as much Carolina Culture as we can and we are absolutely sure that we will take home various cultural experiences