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News From the Heart
July 2011
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We The People - A Perspective on Disability
© 2007 Family Network on Disabilities We are your sisters, we are your brothers. We are your mothers, we are your fathers. We are your sons, we are your daughters. We are yourselves. We. We are everywhere. Wherever you look. You will find us. Like in a mirror. Deny us, curse us, hide us. We are still there. Fix us, cure us? Yeah, I don't think so. Why? We. Here's a question - what is normal, anyway? I don't know. Do you? Can you touch it? Can you feel it? Do you know it in your soul? I don't think so. I don't think it exists. Go ahead - put us on buses short and in classrooms apart. Segregate us. Point at us. Laugh at us. Shall we overcome? Oh, yes, we shall. We. We're told we have rights - as long as we're not naïve enough to actually try to use them. We're told there's no money - for us. But there always seems to be enough money for everything else. Where's that magic lamp? How do we tap into that magic tree? We. We - are one out of five persons in the U.S. We - breathe the same air and share the same small planet. We - are you. We. You. Us. We.
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 POPIN Regional Conference
The POPIN Regional Conference will be held Saturday, August 20, 2011 from 9:00am until 4:30pm at Howard Bishop Middle School in Gainesville, FL. APD, the Child Advocacy Center, and the Early Learning Center of Alachua County have confirmed their attendance. FND's TILES (Transition, Independent Living, Employment and Support) and PIRC (Parental Information and Resource Center) Programs will be in attendance as well. Additional exhibitors and vendors will be confirmed in the weeks to come. For more information or to get involved, please contact Nicole Brown, POPIN Project Director, at nicole@fndfl.org.
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 The 2nd Annual "Back to the '80s" Scavenger Hunt & Pub Crawl Fundraiser
It's time for FND's 2nd Annual "Back to the '80s" Scavenger Hunt and Pub Crawl Fundraiser. If you live in the Tampa Bay Area, please join us in your best '80s attire and search for totally awesome clues and complete some gnarly tasks to win some truly bodacious prizes! To pre-register or to get more information, visit www.fndfl.org/pubcrawl.
Proceeds from this year's event will help fund FND's Youth Advocacy and Action Project, which helps youth with disabilities by providing training in advocacy. The youth will then put those skills into practice by advocating for themselves and for improvement in their communities. This will be an ongoing project at FND. By motivating youth to action, we hope to inspire a generation to take responsibility for their communities. The ultimate goal of this project is to leave in place a well trained, confident group of youths with disabilities who will then be able to advocate for themselves - to improve their own lives - as well as their communities. Through a StarbucksTM Shared PlanetTM Youth Action Grant, FND is able to get this program launched. We should have locations and dates for the first trainings within the next 4-6 weeks, so stay tuned!
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Puzzles
Puzzles is a family entertainment center located in Southwest Orange County. In addition to bounce houses, slides, an arcade, and pizza, Puzzles also serves as a classroom to teach employment and independent living skills to young adults with developmental disabilities.
For more information, visit www.puzzlesinc.net
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 5th Annual SPARC Conference
The 5th Annual SPARC Conference will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011, from 8:00am until 4:30pm at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School in Largo, FL. This is a Florida statewide conference on exceptional student education. There will be information on federal, state and local agencies, as well as private companies, doctors, therapists, advocates and more. We hope to see you there!
For additional information, visit www.standadvocates.org.
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