Washington state informational and networking events for families with children with special health needs
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We’re bringing back the Voices of Recovery Summit! Our goal again is to create connections between people in recovery and behavioral health providers within broader policy systems to encourage meaningful dialogue and gather community feedback about how to ensure recovery is accessible for everyone in Washington state.
EVENT LAYOUT: The Washington Recovery Alliance (WRA) is once again hosting the Voices of Recovery Summit, funded by the Washington State Health Care Authority. This summit is designed to convene the recovery community, its allies, and advocates across the state to hear from tried and true leaders, provide feedback, and review the latest, most pertinent updates surrounding the status of the recovery movement in Washington.
Held virtually again for the fourth year, the 2023 Voices of Recovery Summit will consist of the following components:
- Morning and afternoon speaker sessions
- Recovery Champion Award
- Regional breakout rooms
- Closing session and reflection
- Scavenger hunt with a gift for completion
Registration is required for attendance so please reserve your spot as soon as possible. Please note, we will send you updates to the email you provide during the registration process.
Funding for the Voices of Recovery Summit is provided by the Washington State Health Care Authority. If you’d like to learn more about our funder, sign up for the Office of Recovery Partnerships mailing list here.
QUESTIONS? Please contact our Program & Events Manager, Tristan, at tristan@washingtonrecoveryalliance.org

These trainings are opportunities for parents, caregivers, and professionals to learn how students receive their special education services. The initial plan is to be meeting in person; however, information will be sent a couple of days prior to meeting.
From 2pm – 3pm will be the training topic.
The IEP clinic will go from 3pm – 4pm that will allow individuals to bring your students IEP, Evaluation, or 504 plan to the clinic and asked questions/answers.

Monthly on the 2nd Friday of each month at 7 PM.
A group for parents and caregivers of individuals with Down Syndrome.
Grab your dinner, a tasty beverage, and your phone, tablet, or computer – and join us online for social time together!
This group is about social connection, building community, emotional support, laughter, sharing resources, and just having a safe place to talk with other people who get it.
What to Expect:
- Good conversation
- Building community
- Connecting to other parents
- Sharing community resources
Questions:
Doreen VanderVort : (253)565-2266 ext 107
PAVE Pierce County Programs: P2P@wapave.org
Sharing Down Syndrome in Pierce County – SDSPC@wapave.org

This free online training is designed for all Alaskans providing direct support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It will show a view of trauma from the perspective of the lives of people with IDD. We will begin by exploring the sources of trauma and then the effects of that trauma on both a biological and psychological level. Finally, we will focus on the key ingredients to help individuals heal and build a positive sense of self. Throughout, case studies will be examined to show how this knowledge can help support people in real-life scenarios.


Please join Child Trends for a webinar on building and sustaining protective communities for Black children and their families. Communities play a critical role in children’s development and well-being, across all ages and developmental stages. Child Trends aims to contribute to national and local conversations about ways to ensure that Black children and families have access to communities that are protective and nurturing. Panelists will include a diverse range of perspectives—including research, policy, direct service, and advocacy voices in the fields of education, housing, health, and safety—and discuss strategies to dismantle racial inequities and build the conditions and contexts that Black children and families (and all children and families) need to thrive. Panelists will further reflect on their own visions for protective communities for Black children and families and what is required to achieve those visions.

People with disabilities, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), experience sexual assault at much higher rates than people without disabilities. They also encounter challenges receiving care and support services due to pervasive accessibility barriers. It is important to hear directly from individuals with disabilities who are survivors of sexual assault and learn their recommendations for how to improve the support system.
To raise awareness of these issues, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary (OASH) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) will host an equity-focused webinar on sexual violence against persons with ID/DD. The webinar is a collaborative effort with Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Activating Change, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the visibility of the justice issues people with disabilities face.
The webinar will highlight the prevalence of sexual assault in the disability community. It will center the perspectives of sexual assault survivors with ID/DD, who will discuss their experiences, the barriers they encountered when seeking support, and the recommendations to improve access to care and justice. The target audience is broad and includes organizations serving people with ID/DD, organizations serving survivors of sexual violence, and victim advocates and prevention specialists, plus partners and grantees from HHS and other government agencies.
Continuing Education Hours: Approved for 1.5 National Advocate Credentialing Program (NACP) and DoD Sexual Assault Advocate Certification Program (D-SAACP) continuing education hours.

The National Paralysis Resource Center (PRC) — operated by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation — is hosting a webinar about the Peer & Family Support Program, which provides free peer mentoring to individuals living with paralysis and their family members and caregivers through a nationwide network of trained and certified mentors.
Peer support can provide vital benefits to patients with paralysis during an inpatient stay, the return home, and outpatient treatment. This webinar will introduce health care professionals to the program and explain how they can access peer support for their patients with paralysis. Topics to be covered include an overview of the program, who its mentors are, how to refer a patient to be mentored, and the patient-mentor matching process. There will be time at the end of the webinar for audience questions.
The webinar will be recorded and shared via email to all registrants and available on the Reeve Foundation’s YouTube channel.
This webinar is free and live captioning will be available. Contact Rebecca Sultzbaugh with questions.