Workshops in Arlington: Creating a Safety Plan for Your Special Needs Child

From the Arlington SEPAC

November 11, 2014

We believe all children with exceptional needs should have a Safety Plan. Why?

• Children with disabilities are at higher risk of harm during personal or public emergencies than their peers without disabilities; and,

• Having a Safety Plan leads to better outcomes for children, and contributes to parents' greater feelings of security and well-being.

During this workshop, parents will use a new interactive online tool to create a customized Safety Plan they can share with their child’s caregiving team –especially useful if when a parent is not immediately available.

Parents caregivers will be guided through steps including:

• Creating communications groups linking your child’s care team members;

• Walking through how you want your child’s team to respond to different types of personal and public emergencies – and best practices on responding to each;

• Sharing the Safety Plan with care team members – to guide decisions and enable proactive rather than reactive incident response.

Come to this workshop sponsored by Arlington SEPAC and Exceptional Lives, and leave with a customized Safety Plan for your child.

When:   7:00 - 8:15pm Monday, November 17, or

                    Wednesday, November 19 (pick one)

Where: Ottoson Middle School, Room 324,

                   63 Acton Street, Arlington

RSVP to Jerri Newman at ArlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com, or call 339-927-8644. Seating is limited to the first 20 parents or caregivers per evening to register.

For more information, please contact: Jerri Newman at ArlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com (339-927-8644) or Jay O’Brien, at jay.obrien@ExceptionalLives.org (617-388-3638).