Hi Everyone
This week we are going to continue with the Family Engagement section of the Taxonomy of Transition Programming. Below we have 4 great resources that align with one or more of the 3 subcategories which are Family Involvement, Family Empowerment, and Family Preparation.
GrandUnderstandings
In Ohio there are over 185,000 children living with their grandparents. This page has multiple resources to help engage grandparents. The resources on this page will hit each of the 3 subcategories of family engagement, which are family involvement, family empowerment, and family preparation. As you scroll down the page there is a research brief that will describe strategies for engaging grandparents as well as giving examples of these strategies in action.
OCALI Family Workshop
This webpage has multiple videos that all can be great sources of information. The link above should take you to the section of the webpage where there is a video on transition planning and career exploration. The video is full of great information for everyone but can be really useful to address the family preparation subcategory of family engagement. This video can be cut into sections to help explain various topics to parents. Some examples include; VR Process, OOD, Waivers, and much more. This video made a priority to not use acronyms in order to not confuse parents. The best way to summarize this video is one of the objectives they used which was "to think about yourself as a team member and how you can support your child".
Career Connections for Families
We have shared multiple career connections resources in the past. This is another great one and is great for all students, not just those with disabilities. This resource is another one for the family preparation subcategory. Using this document, families are able to learn activities they can do at home to support the work of the school in each of the 3 grade bands of career exploration. Some examples include; begin to talk with your child about their strengths and interests, share websites or books that focus on your child’s interests, and much more.
How to find the right career for me
One more cool graphic that can be displayed in every classroom. This placemat (not what you’re thinking) is a one-pager of activities that a student and / or family can do to help the student find the right career for them. A couple examples include; Where would I like to work, what qualifications do I need, and so much more. These can be a topic of the day / week for journaling or something parents talk about nightly at home. This document really allows families to be involved in their child’s career exploration.