Please accept the following invitation personally and also please share it with your family, friends and associates ....

We are registering families seeking support in dealing with issues surrounding meeting the needs of their disabled child/youth.

AND...

We are recruiting volunteers who would like to mentor parents/caregivers or youth as they try to overcome obstacles challenges with education, recreation, healthcare, respite care, etc.

Nanaimo Unique Kids Organization's Mentoring Project has been funded by Service Canada to provide mentoring/advocacy support for families of children/youth with neuro-developmental disabilities (Learning Disabilities, FASD, Tourettes, Intellectual Impairments, Autism, Aspergers, Anxiety Disorders and other complex disabilities). This is a legacy project created through findings of local needs identified by the Unique Kids Survey Project completed earlier this year.

The mentoring project would like to invite between 12 and 20 families/individuals needing support to better meet the educational, health care, employment, social, recreation, etc. needs of their disabled child/youth. We will also accept requests from young adults seeking such support. Often partnering a family with another parent/grandparent who has overcome challenges of having a child with a disability, or providing a family with specific information helps them climb over what may seem to be insurmountable hurdles. If more than 20 local families/individuals register, we will do our best to accommodate them.

To register for our mentoring program (parent/caregiver, youth or volunteer mentor), please reply to this email (hot link) or call our office during the hours of 8:30 am and 4:00 pm.

After a call...

1. We will meet with registrants,
2. discuss their needs and
3. recruit volunteer mentors to meet those needs.
4. Family members or individuals and mentors will be given training
   • effective communication,
   • process in working through problems and
   • boundaries with regard to the mentoring support we will offer,
   • access to informational meetings and materials
5. We will provide ongoing evaluation to participants in order to keep the mentoring support effective, efficient and responsive to desired outcomes.

As parent/caregivers register, we will recruit and add to our base of volunteer mentors/advocates (a few retired professionals and local residents have already contacted our office offering to become mentors) seeking individuals with skill sets that match the needs of each client/family.

Please know we will also direct calls to established support groups or assist registrants in creating support groups to provide opportunities for them to socialize, invite informational workshops/seminars, etc. and to learn from one another's experiences.

We look forward to supporting the needs of disabled children/youth both through their families and individually in partnership with mentors, local agencies and service providers.

Thank you,

Geri Sera
Unique Kids Mentoring Project Coordinator