Li-Huei Wei, FCSN President On behalf of the board of directors and staff members, I would like to welcome you to FCSN. As we continue our commitment to help children with special needs and their families find hope, love, respect and support, we hope that you will continue to be with us. Let us envision this new millennium that will be full of excitements and joys for the FCSN family. FCSN is a group of caring people who commit to help children with special needs. And, as one of many FCSN unique characteristics, one third of our member families are without children with special needs, they are just normal families but with warm hearts and full of loves to the society. We all come together to volunteer our times and efforts, at the same time, we also enjoy the resources that other people have contributed. Thanks to our former chairpersons, Linmei and TsaiWei, who had established a solid foundation for FCSN. It is evident that our organization has become stronger and much better positioned in pursuing our slated goals. Thanks to Su-Ti who had guided us to find the Asian Pacific Family Resources Center as the home base for FCSN regular gatherings. Many thanks go to Mrs. Celia Anderson and her wonderful staff at APFRC for not only providing us the excellent facility but also supporting us with childcare service. I am proud that FCSN is being recognized as a model organization in the community and we do play an important role for the families that have children with special needs. As we are approaching our 4th year, we are so proud of FCSN’s Dream Committee. The Dream committee is working on a long-term project that will be beneficial to all the children with special needs. They are planning to build an activity center that can foster job opportunities and leisure activities in the near future. Furthermore, we are also reaching to every member to build mutual support and care, in order to build a warm and lovely community. I am proud to announce that FCSN has expanded its original support group into 4-subgroups: they are the volunteers with children with special needs, volunteers without children with special needs, volunteers with Cantonese-speaking, and volunteers of youth. I would like to encourage you to join one of these support groups and ready to establish better relationship among members. Because FCSN is a non-profit organization, your financial support is critically important. Your kind donation would enable us to be better serve to the needy families. I sincerely thank those individuals and organizations that have been generous to FCSN in the past. We are currently seeking possible community resources for the organization. Your generosity is genuinely welcome and very much appreciated. Thank to you and may God bless you and your family! FCSN How to make donations to FCSN? “ ” RFC Community Grant 1. Alfred Lam (1-888-6814 1818) Alfred Donation Matching Program of Children with Special Needs FCSN Friends Alfred 4. (May Leung) FCSN 2. 5. United Way FCSN, United Way Friends of Children with Special Needs Tax ID 77-0446853 Amy Wang 250 Las Palmas Ct., Fremont, CA 94539 3. ( Donation Matching Program) FCSN (May Leung) 1351 Rinrock Dr., San Jose, CA 95120 (408997-6286) ( “ FCSN? ” ) YAYA Ed. Lavin Larry 5 Cheri Saratoga High Workability Program Job Coach Saratoga Downtown International , Coffee Exchange Cheri School District Workability Job Coach Program Cheri , International Coffee Exchange , Job Coach FCSN Center Crazy A Success Story: Why the people at FCSN have helped us so much... Lena Sun naturally speaking with the same language, sharing their daily experiences and medical information in the area of developmental disabilities. All those interactions enable them to communicate and comfort each other more effectively. Vivian has made significant progress in her language ability, social skills and awareness to surrounding things since she joined Friends of Children with Special Needs (FCSN). In fact, as the parent of Vivian, my husband K.C.and myself have felt that we have received even more from the organization. There are many touching stories at FCSN. For example, I am always amazed and deeply moved whenever I see those parents are willing to Because of bearing with similar concerns and worries about their special loved ones, the parents at FCSN are 6 attacked by a disease caused by a rare kind of virus. The disease paralyzed Stanley’s back and lower body. During the worst situations, Stanley even could not move his lower body at all. After medical treatments and persistent rehabilitation, Stanley later was able to walk with some difficulties. Because of this family hardship, Joyce had to quit her favorite FCSN teaching position and concentrated on taking care of her family. We all have missed the Yeh family so much. volunteer their times and efforts to help children with special needs, and many of those wonderful people even don’t have children with special needs. I am also grateful for the FCSN youth members that help and coach their special buddies through the activities patiently. I have so many good stories and people at FCSN to talk about. Among them, there is a family which has made a tremendous impact on my family and me the Yeh family. One day, in a usual family gathering with Joyce at her house, I unintentionally mentioned that Vivian would have a piano recital soon. At that time, I really thought that was just a casual conversation, because that I have constantly shared some Vivian’s life experiences with them. Before joining FCSN, Vivian was very afraid of the crowd and extremely sensitive to noises. We had so many failed experiences of pushing Vivian through classes or group activities. When the first time we attended FCSN regular gathering, my expectation in fact was set quite low just gave Vivian another try. Mrs. Joyce Yeh was Vivian’s class teacher at that time. It was truly a miracle and I still did not know how she did it: At the end of the class, Vivian was very happy, she even wanted to stay with her teacher instead of going home. Starting from that day, attending FCSN regular gatherings has become an important to-do item on Vivian’s schedule. She knew very well, no matter how she felt, either happy or sad, Mrs. Yeh’s kind smiles or warm hugs would always be there for her. It was a big shock when I saw Joyce and Stanley both appeared in Vivian’s recital. They brought her a nice bunch of flowers and watched through the entire event. Knowing they were coming, Vivian was so exciting, she ran to her Aunt Joyce and gave her a big warm hug. After the recital, we said thanks and goodbye to each other. when I saw that Stanley walked away slowly and awkwardly with his two yet-recovered legs, I could no longer control my emotion any more, my tears just burst out. I will never forget the picture I saw in that afternoon. Joyce has two wonderful sons, Victor and Yu-Ming, the two teenage boys were also participating in FCSN’s activities. Stanley, a truly warm-hearted gentleman, who was always helping in the kitchen area at the gathering, he was working hard but very quiet. In my mind, the Yehs is such a model family. A necessary condition for an organization to be successful is to have good people involved in. There is no doubt in my mind, as long as there are people like the Yeh family at FCSN, there will be many success stories yet to tell. Unfortunately, a few months ago, Stanley was James Chiao Many of the FCSN members have visited our Internet web site at http://come.to/FCSN. If we already have a web site, why do we need another intranet 7 web site? How is it different? Before we answer the question, let’s think of the following situations: • I forgot about last week’s FCSN regular gathering, I wish some one could have send me a reminder. • I’d like to know the latest FCSN’s group activities and news. • I lost the latest flyer and need a map and direction to FCSN’s summer picnic. • I want to find out the email address and phone number of one of the members. • I’d like to start a discussion group with other FCSN members. • I’d like to send a greeting card to another FCSN member. • I have questions that I’d like to ask all members. Intranet Features The FCSN Intranet is associated with Intranet.com which is a company that specializes in hosting Intranets for groups, clubs and companies. The Intranet is easy to use and has the many features which makes it easy to communicate with other group members such as: • • • • • • • Make announcement and distribute the latest FCSN announcements and news Share the FCSN event calendar and send reminders for all key FCSN events Share ideas, information and messages with other FCSN members Browse though the photo albums for all the FCSN activities Look up the group member list for phone numbers and email addresses Look up the FCSN group calendar for the upcoming events and maps Links to other web sites such as PHP, FCSN and Photopoint web sites Links to FCSN Photo Album If you have at any time experienced one of these situations, then the FCSN Intranet is for you. In fact, the Intranet was set up solely to facilitate the inter-communication between FCSN members. The biggest difference between the two web sites is that the Internet site is designed for a wide audience; and the Intranet site is designed for FCSN members only. Therefore, the emphasis and features of the two sites are quite different. The photo album has to be the most popular site in our Intranet; in fact, we have recorded hundreds of hits during the last few months. To view the albums, simply click on the FCSN Photo Album in the Group links area. How do I sign up? To sign up, just follow the 3 easy steps: 1. On the web browser address: type in http://fcsn.intranets.com 2. For the first time user, click the “register” button and use the keyword “special” for the registration code. 3. Follow instructions. If you have any question regarding FCSN Intranet, please contact Jim Chiao (408)867-0912. 8 Susan Hwang first, I could not tell whether she didn’t like me or simply because I was a stranger that she was not paying much attention to me. She was unresponsive to my presence, then when we played ball she even refused to play with me and walked away when I tried to play with her. After I started talking to her and guiding her to what we were doing, she caught up quickly, and pretty soon we had a great game going on. From that I started noticing new things about her. She likes everything to be organized and the notices quite a lot around her. For the next couple of weeks, we talked and played together, I could tell I was making a progress and we were becoming better friends. Life is full of unexpected surprises. You never realize how lucky you really are until you meet someone who is less fortunate. I was naïve and always assumed that everyone would have what I had. However, life doesn’t always work out that way. My cousin, Vivian, who is a wonderfully talented girl, was the first person who introduced me the wonderful group of people--Friends of Children with Special Needs. When I first came to FCSN I was a little shy and nervous about the environment. I didn’t know how to act or say to my special (kids) friends. I tried to communicate with them by using facial expressions, hand gestures but sometimes I felt that I was either being rejected or even ignored. Although this frustrated me some, I still wanted to help despite my unsuccessful results. After awhile of observing the people that had been there a little longer, I started to understand how to communicate: I would talk to them like we were the oldest friends and encourage them to talk to me by asking them questions. It is a great feeling of when you make a new friend. The experience with Ya-ya encouraged me to be friendlier to everyone and that, in turn, makes me a better person. It also teaches me to be more patient and confident with myself: Before I joined this group, I didn’t know how to act with people different than I was. Now, at school when I see people who are different than I am, I know what to say and exactly what to do. It has brought me a whole new perspective and made me into a whole new person. The experience with Ya-ya is something I will never forget, it inspires me to make friends that would last for a lifetime. The person who I worked closely with was Ya-ya. I was drawn to her in the beginning because we had something in common: our nickname. I remember once when someone called the name Ya-ya and I turned around. To my surprise, that person was not talking to me. From that instant on, I decided to find out who this phantom girl was! Finally, I found her. At ⇐ FCSN Integrated Education Program: Ms. Karen Hook’s Group Music Therapy/Kinder Music... Can you tell which one is Susan in the circle? 9 “ ” “ “ ” ” FCSN “ ” FCSN (FCSN Bulletin Board) Volunteers needed: If you, your family members or your friends that would like to volunteer helps at FCSN, please contact the following parent support coordinators according to your situation: • If volunteers are associated with special needs children at home, please contact Su-Fen Wu (408-9279959) or Li Wang (408-446-0348). • If volunteers are not associated with special needs children at home, please contact Chiu-Fenn Lan (510471-8435) or Shu-Ling Chiang (408-259-4375) • All youth volunteers please contact Yvonne Chen (408-279-3035). • If volunteers only speak Cantonese, please contact Minni Yu (408-735-1702). FCSN Library: If you have any question about FCSN library, or you have good books/tapes and like to share with other FCSN members, please contact the library coordinator Ling-Ru Wang (408-741-0147). From the editor: Special thanks to Mrs. Chia-Jung Kuo ( ) for helping Chinese typing in this issue of FCSN Newsletter. Seminar Topic Preference Survey: Parent support group is currently conducting a survey to solicit most interesting and needed seminar topics for future FCSN seminar series. If you haven’t done that please contact Mrs. Minni Yu to request a survey form and complete it ASAP. 10 Attachment 1: FCSN 2000-2001 Fall Sememster Seminar Series Date Guest Speaker Topic 9/23/00 Debra Wright IEP Meeting 10/7/00 Dr. Bradford Murray Vision Therapy 10/21/00 Dr. Summer Hsia Early Intervention 11/4/00 Dr. Kathy Gee Full Inclusion 11/18/00 Dr. Heather Erba Alternative Treatments for Children with Special Needs 12/2/00 Cathlin Ho How to Communicate and Understand Our Teenagers Attachment 2: FCSN Education Program, Teaching Plan 2000 Teaching Plan 2000 Teaching Supporters/Coordinators: Anna Wang, Christine Chen Goals: 1. Increase participation for all children with special needs. 2. Adapt an easy and structured format that would benefit both children & teachers. 3. Form a teaching staff entirely made up of volunteers to relieve parents of children with special needs to attend parent support or group activities. 4. The needs of each special child will be assessed after each class to see how he/she could be better served. (He/she will be assigned a consistent helper, peer, youth, or adult according to his/her need.) Class Format for all children 13 and under: 1. 4 Classes, 30 minutes each. (each class's teachers will prepare 30 min. of teaching material, and repeat teaching it for 4 times) 2. Special needs children will be divided evenly into 4 groups according to age. 3. Each group consists approximately the same number of special needs kids and regular kids, about 10 total. 4. Each group will rotate through each of the 4 classes, making up 2 hrs class time. 5. The Classes are: A) B) C) D) Class EXERCISE ARTS & CRAFTS DANCE GAMES Teacher RYAN GLOVER,YVONNE CHEN JOYCE LAN, SHU LING CHIANG JOYCE HU, NEETU SABHARWAL JANE LIN, SUSAN CHEN 6. Other Needs: 5 Youth helpers, 4 adult helpers. Adult Helper: Anmin Tseng, Jen Tsao, Chia-Jung Kuo, Annie Tang New Dolphin Class for Youth: 1) Teachers: Linmei Chiao, Bih-Fen Wu. 2) Class Format: 3 class periods - exercise, social, music 11 We thank... All FCSN members would like to express their thanks to the following people or companies for their generosity and considerations to our family members. With these warm helps and supports, we strongly believe that our children will have an even better tomorrow. Year 2000 Donations: NEC Electronics Te-Fang & Tu-Ting Cheng Show-Chen Jennifer Ma United Way Tina Peng Michael & Jenny Lin Jinn Hsiung Wen Amy Wang Su-Fen & Tsai-Wei Wu Gary Chen Sheau-Yin Hsia $500.00 $10,000.00 $2000.00 $100.00 $200.00 $100.00 $50.00 $600.00 $245.00 $200.00 $200.00 James Chiao CBC Caroline and Joey Kuo Paul Sun Chun-Fu Su Jason &Katherine Wen Chin-Hui Hsiu Shiuhwoo Lee Resources for Family and Community (RFC) 1999-2000 Community Grant $200.00 $1,000.00 $200.00 $500.00 $300.00 $50.00 $160.00 $500.00 $9,200 Mrs. Amy Wang Friends of Children with Special Needs 250 Las Palmas Ct., Fremont, CA 94539 If you are interested in joining our organization and/or would like to have some comments to us, please contact Li-Huei Wei at (408) 996-0858 or Amy Wang at (510) 226-9377. (408) 996-0858 (510) 226-9377 12
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