Supporting Military Families with Children with Disabilities A Prospectus

1
Supporting Military Families with Children with
Disabilities A Prospectus

• The Partnership for People with Disabilities
• at
• Virginia Commonwealth University

2
Planning Sessions

• Virginias system of delivering services to
  families with children with disabilities is, at
  best, fragmented and difficult to navigate.
  Military families have a more difficult time
  accessing Virginias services. In response, we
• Collaborated with a group of military family
  members and EFMP coordinators,
• Determined gaps between military and civilian
  services, and
• Committed to develop a model that supports
  families from all bases and all branches -- a
  departure from other such projects.

3
Virginias Unique Military Profile

• Approximately 40,000 Reserve, National Guard
  80,000 active duty military personnel ( 25,700
  Army, 40,300 Navy and Marine Corps, 14,000 Air
  Force) and 3,800 Coast Guard personnel live in
  Virginia.
• Excluding military annexes and the Pentagon,
  Virginia has 12 military installations and an
  additional 10 Coast Guard installations.
• Virginia reportedly has the largest number of
  school-aged dependents of military personnel of
  any state (124,000), translating to a minimum of
  12,400 school-aged children with disabilities
  (out of 175,000 total statewide)
• 5,000 children in Tidewater area alone are
  enrolled in the EFMP.

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Profile, contd.

• Ft. Lee, Quantico and Ft. Belvoir all have
  projected personnel growth from upcoming
  expansions.
• Virginia military families have access to large
  hospitals within driving distance (Walter Reed in
  DC, Portsmouth Naval Hospital in VA, and Bethesda
  National Medical Center in MD).
• Virginia is a major target for homesteading and
  compassionate assignment.
• If every major installation had, on the average,
  two full-time EFMP coordinators, they would be
  responsible for supporting, on average over 600
  children with disabilities each.

5
Our Vision for a National Model

• To improve the continuity of care between
  military and civilian medical and other treatment
  services
• To assist families living off base access
  services available to them both on and off base
  (e.g., respite, emergency preparedness)
• To translate civilian services between states in
  the event of a transfer
• To support families in making decisions about
  school districts and special education related
  advocacy
• To empower families to advocate for themselves in
  the civilian service arena

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Vision, contd.

• To complement efforts of the EFMP coordinators in
  supporting families in the use of civilian
  services
• To collaborate with the EFMP coordinators in case
  management strategies
• To support EFMP coordinators in times of high
  turnover of staff and families
• To ensure that families, EFMP coordinators and
  civilian service providers are working together
  to minimize fragmentation of services
• To assist school divisions and the VDOE in
  developing strategies to provide education to a
  growing number of students whose stay may be
  temporary

7
Strategies

• Hire a director, five full-time civilians who are
  knowledgeable about Virginias disability
  service delivery systems and a minimum of five
  parents representing four branches and Coast
  Guard to serve as Navigators so that
• Parents and professionals from multiple
  disciplines will develop a regionally-based
  program together, each representing a branch that
  can be served by any one region and
• In the event of one or more transfers, there is
  continuity among the remaining navigators and
  support for new navigators

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Strategies contd.

• Create a robust interactive community website
  that functions as the Navigators assistant
• Create a network of military family members and
  EFMP coordinators that sustains the Navigator
  function of the website
• Maintain the strength of the family unit as the
  focus of all services and collaborations through
  individual support, peer support, and systems
  support

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Our Purpose

• To inform you of who we are
• To ask that you remember us
• To ask that you support us when the time comes to
  apply for funding from multiple sources