The Disability Information and Resource Centre

furthering inclusive learning & development (field) provides learning resources for people with disability, the disability services workforce and the disability community.

They have a number of workshops, forums and training sessions coming up. Details of these can be found in their most recent newsletter.

We’ve received the following information from Empowering Families in Inclusive Education about their monthly meetings:

Hi all,

Our group, Empowering Families in Inclusive Education, meets on the third Tuesday of the month, which is Tuesday the 20th April this month at Mama Carmella’s on 169 Unley Road, Unley at 7pm.

The group is for parents and carers whose children with disabilities are in regular classes at regular schools, or who would like that to be the case, or who just want to explore their options. We are NOT politically aligned anywhere, despite my personal involvement (see below). We meet to share stories and resources about our school aged children in an informal gathering.

I apologize for not meeting earlier this year, but plan to have our regular meetings for the rest of the year.

Please RSVP as Mama Carmela’s need to know our numbers. You can RSVP via email sam@skuut.com.au or text me at 0410-513-013 with your name and phone number (in case plans change).

Cheers,

Sam Paior

A link for your interest: http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/images/PDF/incledprin.pdf (this interview with a primary school principal is USA based, so some elements are not relevant, but much of it is)

FYI – As you might know, I am heavily involved with the Dignity for Disability political party and am very excited that our candidate in the Upper House, Kelly Vincent is likely to be announced as Member of the Legislative Council in a week or so (we’re still waiting for all the “below the line” votes to be data-entried so the Electoral Commission can declare the results). The manta for Dignity for Disability is “Dignity through Choice” and that extends to education and more, so if you’d like to know more about d4d, check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DignityforDisability. We do have a regular website, but will be launching a new one *very* soon, so I’ll forward the details then.

Is your child with special needs (physical, intellectual and/or behavioural) mainstreamed/included in a typical class at your local public, independent or Catholic primary or secondary school?
Or would you like your child to be mainstreamed/included?
Would you like to meet other parents to share resources, stories, supports, successes and challenges?
We’d love you to join this new group. Share your voice and work with each other to build better education services for our special kids.
3rd Tuesday of every month at 7pm for dinner, or dessert, or coffee or something stronger!
STARTING TUESDAY OCTOBER 20th 7-9.30pm
Mama Carmella Italian Restaurant
169 Unley Road
(opp Town Hall, cnr Oxford Tce)
For more details or to RSVP contact:
Sam Paior   0410 513 013 sam@skuut.com.au
Donna Crowden   0416 058 514

Please feel free to include this information in any upcoming newsletters and/or distribute where appropriate.