Tips to Start a Parent Support Group
If you can’t find a parent support group that meets your needs, here are advice and tips to start your own.
If you can’t find a parent support group that meets your needs, here are advice and tips to start your own.
When you have a child with a disability, your world can be filled with many unanswered questions. And sometimes it can feel like a very lonely struggle. But you are not alone. The best way to find answers and a source of reassurance and understanding is to get together with other families who are going through the same thing, or have been through it and are willing to lend their support to others.
One great way to connect with these families is to find a parent support group in your area. Parent groups can share information about the disabilities of their children, school services, therapy, local policies, funding sources, transportation, medical facilities, emotional support and much more. The number one recommendation of this entire site is to connect with other parents who share your experience.
But what if there isn’t an existing group that meets your needs? The answer might be for you to start one.
After you have answered these questions, you can start to look for what you need. If you can’t find it, you can start your own group.
Keep in mind that nowadays not all support groups meet in person. Many parents find meaningful support through online support groups. Use Google or another search engine to see if some of these groups might meet your needs.
This is up to you and your co-founders. Groups can be formed to support any need. But it helps to define who the group is for at the beginning, so that as it grows, it meets members’ needs and expectations. For instance, if you were just going to start a group for parents of children with any type of disability, you might find that as the group grew, there were so many different issues to deal with that no one was satisfied. The more specific you are in defining who and what the group is for, the more likely you are to create a group of people with a common goal and purpose.
Again, this is up to you, but something you should think about and discuss. Some groups are intended for parents to talk informally and share their experiences. In such cases, it may not be necessary to have someone to formally lead meetings. Other groups may seek to create activities or raise funds or otherwise achieve formal objectives. For these groups, it may be best to have a facilitator to lead meetings, and leadership roles to take on various group responsibilities.
This is a parent group, so remember, someone has to watch the kids. You need at least one trained child care worker who is familiar with the needs of children with disabilities. If you have to pay for this person’s services, make sure that all parents in the group are willing to share the cost. Your trained child care worker will probably need some help, so consider seeking high school or college student volunteers, or volunteers from youth or adult church groups.
To find members, you’ll need to get the word out. There are many free ways you can do that: