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| Latino children play at the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison while their family members attend a class funded by the Apostolate to the Handicapped through the Families United with Children with Special Needs program. (Photos by Kristin Van Spankeren) |
MADISON — This past fall, the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) received a grant from the Apostolate to the Handicapped, Inc., of the Diocese of Madison to implement programs to aid its Latino community with special needs.
Specifically, the $8,940 grant provides funding for a Latino support program called Familias Unidas con Niños con Necesidades Especiales (FUNNE), or Families United with Children with Special Needs.
Thanks for grant
The CMC would like to express its thanks for this generous and important donation.
“With this grant, we can offer services in people’s own language,” said Lilliam Post, CMC bilingual and educational coordinator.
“We can offer a learning experience for families, building confidence and enhancing lives. Families are looking for real solutions and to create a community that supports each other. This grant allows us to create opportunities for families to integrate and be inclusive in all aspects, and we are very thankful.”
FUNNE, developed in 2009, is comprised of several Latino families with children with special needs, their caretakers, and other family members.
Services for Latino community
The current grant supplied to the CMC by the Apostolate to the Handicapped allows FUNNE to continue delivering educational services to the Latino community in need.
Currently, FUNNE sponsors a series of support group meetings to educate Latino parents about certain parenting topics, as well as form fellowship amid group members.
The series is composed of four different support group sessions, and about 20 families attend a session at a time. Families are referred to these sessions by the various FUNNE partner organizations.
The first gathering occurred on December 6, 2013, and centered on finding services available to provide seating and chair safety for children with special needs. Like most sessions, the meeting lasted over two hours and was accompanied by childcare and dinner from the CMC.
Parenting training
The second support group took place on February 21 with a new focus. This session was entitled “Diálogos” [“Dialogues”], with the goal of offering training and creating discussion about “parenting with love and logic.”
Romilia Schlueter, quality improvement specialist for Supporting Families Together Association, led the training with a Power Point presentation and questions focused on material from the book, Ser padres con amor y lógica: cómo enseñar responsabilidad a los niños or Parenting with Love and Logic: How to Teach Responsibility to Kids.
Each member was given the book at the previous meeting, with the instructions to read certain chapters to prepare for discussion.
The session touched on various parenting topics from the readings, such the significance of love and logic in the family model, parenting styles, joys and rewards of parenting, teaching responsibility to children, opportunities for learning, and the meaning of success and failure in a parent-child relationship.
In general, the goal of the session was to learn how to raise children with self-esteem, confidence, and problem-solving skills, while maintaining positive parental authority.
Parents, caretakers, and family members listened to the speaker, asked questions, and participated in a lively discussion and sharing of stories and advice from their personal experiences and learning.
“Families are learning to express themselves on their own,” Post said. “They are taking the initiative to invite other families who are isolated with a child with a disability, and learning together about services in the community to become their own advocate. Families are able to ask questions and support each other.”
The support group finished the book before the third meeting of the series on March 21. The fourth and final support group meeting will take place in May.
Strengthening families
Furthermore, the Apostolate to the Handicapped grant will sponsor two educational seminars on various topics in addition to the FUNNE support groups.
The seminars are different from the support groups in that they host more participants (about 40 families) and are training-based rather than discussion-based. The first seminar will take place on April 12 and is entitled “Fortaleciendo Familias”, or “Strengthening Families.” The goal of the training is to use research results to educate parents on how to increase protection factors within their families and community in order to minimize the risk of child abuse and negligence.
“The growth of FUNNE has provided one of the few places that parents with children with disabilities feel comfortable and can learn in a safe environment about disabilities,” Post said.
Automatic door openers
Finally, the Apostolate to the Handicapped has provided further service to the CMC through funding for automatic door openers.
The openers allow for people with special needs and all guests at the CMC to have greater accessibility throughout the building.
The CMC is very grateful to the Apostolate to the Handicapped for their support.