Joining Voices

Welcome to Joining Voices, a conference to support parents of children and youth with special health care needs in the development of leadership and advocacy skills.

My name is Beth Dworetzky and I staff the Massachusetts Family Voices project at the Federation for Children with Special Needs. Massachusetts Family Voices is a state chapter of Family Voices, a national, grassroots organization of families and friends speaking out on behalf of children and youth with special health care needs.

Please join me in extending our many thanks to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health whose generous financial support helped make this day possible. Additional funding was supplied by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Massachusetts Family Voices at the Federation recently received a three-year grant from CMS to create a family-run, statewide Family-to-Family Health Care Information and Education Center in Massachusetts. This new project will significantly expand the capacity of the Federation to be able to offer health care advocacy and leadership training to families of children and youth with special health care needs.

I'd like to welcome our keynote speaker, Josie Thomas. Josie is the Executive Director of the Parents' Place of Maryland. Like the Federation in Massachusetts, the Parents' Place is the Parent Training and Information Center for Maryland and offers workshops and advocacy training in the special education arena. Maryland Family Voices is a project of the Parents' Place, and last year they were awarded a CMS grant to create a Family-to-Family Health Care Information and Education Center in Maryland. So, in addition to having the pleasure of hearing Josie share her expertise with us about "Family Leadership: Experience - Expertise - Influence," we look forward to additional collaborations with her, as an existing Family-to-Family Center.