Take a look at our upcoming and past webinars!
Did you miss any? All recorded webinars are available HERE. Join our mailing list HERE to get updates about upcoming webinars.
2023 Webinars
Speaking Up for Yourself as a Parent with I/DD: Maximizing your Success with Home Visitors
February 22, 2024, 12:00pm-1:00pm EST
This webinar focuses on how home visitation programs can be effectively used by parents with I/DD to learn new parenting skills and how to help YOUR home visitor learn the best ways to teach and support you. We’ll also discuss online resources and types of technology that can support independence as a parent.
This webinar is intended for parents with disabilities, as well as the people who support them.
Presented by Lisa Simmons, Lindsay Brillhart, and Dorothy Auckland.
Speaking Up for Yourself as a Parent with I/DD: Taking Your Child to the Doctor
October 19, 11:00am-12:30pm EST
Recorded Webinar
Join us for TASP’s new parent-focused webinar series: Speaking Up for Yourself as a Parent with I/DD. This session is all about asking for accommodations when you take your child to the doctor. Learn how to set yourself up for success. Learn about use easy-to-use phone apps to help you prepare for the appointment and be sure that you know how to help your child when you leave the doctor’s office.
This webinar is intended for parents with disabilities, as well as the people who support them.
Presented by Lisa Simmons, Lindsay Brillhart, and Dorothy Auckland.
The Concept of “Good Enough Parenting” and How it Impacts Parents with IDD
January 12, 2022
What is “adequate” and “good enough” parenting? This FREE webinar will explore what those terms mean and how it pertains to parents living with IDD. Research shows that up to 80% of all parents with IDD lose custody of their child(ren). We will explore why that number is so high. Is it due to actual deficits or system bias? We will look at potential biases in our own work and rethink what are reasonable and realistic expectations. We welcome parents with disabilities, families and friends of individuals with disabilities, and professionals.
Presented by Susan “Sue” Jones, who for 35+ years has specialized in supporting parents with intellectual challenges. She is one of the principal founders and former Co-President of The Association for Successful Parenting and is currently a Senior Board Member. Susan has recently retired from being the Department Director of the Family and Youth Services Department for The United Arc of Turners Falls MA, though she is continuing to provide consultation . She directed the Positive Parenting Program, which provides comprehensive services to parents with learning differences through in-home parent training, instructional supervised supervisions, parent educational and support groups, and Transitional Support Housing and the Caregiver program. Susan has conducted over 30+ years of training on working with parents living with intellectual disabilities regionally, nationally, and internationally. Susan has contributed to several projects in the field, including working with Leigh Ann Davis of The Arc of United States, to develop a curriculum for working with parents living with ID and contributing to the Nation Council on Disability report “Rocking the Cradle: Ensuring the Rights of Parents with Disabilities and Their Children”.
Building Formal and Informal Support Teams to Assist Parents with IDD
April 20, 2022
It has been consistently demonstrated that social isolation can have a significant negative impact on successful parenting. This can be especially true for parents who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) due to the enhanced vulnerabilities that they may face. This FREE webinar will focus on the strengths and challenges of both formal and informal supports for families and their intersection. The presentation will draw from two perspectives, those of parent advocates and those of direct service providers. There will be an emphasis on personal parental experiences regarding informal supports, with school district interactions and practical strategies given as examples. Harmonizing formal professional supports when building an effective partnership with parents will be discussed in respect to communication and trust, especially when there may be competing agendas. Overall, there will be an emphasis on how to blend the two perspectives to promote enhanced opportunities for successful parenting.
Presented by Tom Robinson and Lindsay Brillhart.
Lindsay is a mom of 2 girls. She is a strong self-advocate for her kids and others. She has (formally) worked with the ARC of Hamilton County and Hamilton County Developmental Disability Services. She currently resides in Cincinnati with her her partner Phil and 2 kids: Julianna 20, and Sara, 11. She was once on the People First of Ohio board. She is a Partners in Policy graduate. She is also a graduate of PATHS (Providing Alternative Thinking Strategies). In her spare time, she loves to travel and to meet new people.
Tom is the Director of Thomas Robinson Consulting, Ltd., founded in 1994, which provides individualized services in home communities through a family-centered team approach that promotes inclusion for individuals with developmental delays or disabilities in Northwest British Columbia, Canada. Tom has a BA in Psychology and has worked with services for people who have developmental disabilities for over 40 years, including work in residential services, vocational programs, family support and respite, recreational/ leisure services, college instruction and regional health promotion.
Intersectional Identities and Parents with IDD
July 13, 2022
Intersecting identities is the concept that an individual’s identity consists of multiple, intersecting factors. This term was first coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor and social theorist, civil rights activist, and a leading scholar of critical race theory. Since then, intersectionality is considered crucial to social equity work. It is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by several factors. Intersectional identity theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged or privileged by multiple sources. It considers people’s overlapping identities and experiences to understand the complexity of prejudices and privileges they face.
This FREE webinar will focus on intersectional identities of individuals living with disabilities, in particular parents living with cognitive disabilities, and consider how our many overlapping identities can shape our world. It will discuss ableism, intersectional identities, self-advocacy, and JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) information and ask the audience to consider how the many overlapping identities of a person or group of people do not exist independently of one another, but in fact, work together to shape each person’s identity.
Presented by Dr. Julie Clockston.
Dr. Julie Clockston, LCSW, president of NASW Colorado, serves on the education and executive committees and serves as an NASW Delegate. She is the founder of Julie Clockston Counseling LLC DBA Therapy Rocks, Redwood Coaching and Consulting LLC., and Co-founder of SOAR Colorado LLC, an agency for individuals diagnosed with developmental/ intellectual disabilities. Dr. Clockston is the mother of four and considers them her greatest gifts in life. She has worked with individuals living with cognitive difficulties for 26 years. She is a full-time Assistant Professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver and part-time at Smith College in Northampton, MA. In addition, she is an off-site field instructor for BSSW and MSW students at Arizona State University (ASU), University of Denver (DU), and Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver), where she is also an alumna. At MSU Denver, she works on the social work department’s DEI committee as a BSSW and BIPOC Student Support Liaison. She also facilitates BIPOC faculty and staff space and a Pedagogy and Diversity Faculty and Staff space. She is the MSU Denver staff senate DEI consultant and a member of The Colorado Child Welfare Scholars Consortium as the BSSW Faculty Representative. She is currently working on several scholarly peer-reviewed presentations, journal articles, co-authoring an academic text, and developing a disabilities curriculum.
Bridging the Gap: Cultural Differences between Child Welfare Agencies and Disability Agencies and the Impact on Parents with IDD
September 14, 2022
Thanks to the generous support of the Maryland DD Council, this FREE webinar will examine how professionals in Child Welfare and those in Developmental Disabilities are committed and often passionate about their work. The perceptions and expectations each may have about the other’s services can often interfere with communication and collaboration necessary for best outcomes for families. This webinar will attempt to sort out perceptions and expectations, rooted in the underlying purpose of each, and build greater appreciation of what each system can contribute to good lives for families where parents have DD.
Presented by Dr. Susan Yuan. Dr. Yuan has worked in the field of developmental disabilities since the birth of her son, Andreas, 47 years ago. She was the Associate Director of the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion, Vermont’s UCEDD, until 2008, when she retired from the University, and established her consulting firm, Yuan & Associates. Dr. Yuan conducts training on culture and disability, inclusion, family support, and parents with disabilities. Currently, she assists in grant-writing, conducts program evaluations, and carries out competence-based parenting skills assessments in collaboration with the Vermont Parent Assessment Team at Sage Haven Associates, LLC.
Recorded Webinar
This FREE webinar will provide information about effective support strategies to help families where the parent has a cognitive difficulty. We’ll discuss the importance of building rapport, and how to start the process, as well as share different types of support models and how they work, discuss strategies to provide effective support, and share what parents and self-advocates tell us about parenting and having providers in their lives. Participants will discuss common challenges facing parents with I/DD and talk about how to work together to best support them.
This webinar is presented by Cathy Haarstad. Cathy is an adjunct faculty member at Minot State University in North Dakota. She has over 30 years of experience in supporting adults with developmental disabilities, some of whom choose to parent, and is also the parent of an adult with developmental disabilities.
Full Webinar Flier HERE
Peer Navigation Support for Parents with I/DD
March 10, 2021, 12-1:30pm EST
This FREE webinar will review the history of the Peer Navigation movement along with the thoughts of leaders in the field of supporting parents with I/DD; discussion of how the PN Model was implemented in VT over a 5 year period; a review of how the PN Model was implemented in Washington DC, and, finally some thoughts from several Peer Navigators in the DC project to get their perspective on their work with parents and systems in DC. This session will also examine recent legislation around parenting and the outcome of the Sara Gordon case in MA.
This webinar is presented by Susan Yuan, Ph.D and Bernadette Irwin, MS.
Susan has worked in the field of developmental disabilities since the birth of her son, Andreas, 46 years ago. She was the Associate Director of the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion, Vermont’s UCEDD, until 2008, when she retired from the University, and established her consulting firm, Yuan & Associates. Dr. Yuan conducts training on culture and disability, inclusion, family support, and parents with disabilities.
Bernadette was one of the founders of TASP and worked with children with intellectual/developmental disabilities and their families for over 30 years, and administered Maryland’s only Supported Parenting program, Growing Together, during her years at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Most recently, Bernadette was the Program Director of TASP’s Successful Parenting DC. (SP-DC) Program, a Peer Navigation Program in Washington DC.
Full Webinar Flier HERE
A Comprehensive Approach to Assessing the Strengths and Needs of Parents with IDD
May 12, 2021, 12-1:30pm EST
Parents with IDD are frequently subject to inadequate parental fitness evaluations, causing many to lose their parental rights. This presentation will illuminate the shortcomings of these evaluations and will provide an overview of an alternative methodology, the SAGE Family Assessment Model (SFAM). The SFAM aims to evaluate parents fairly, while offering realistic and relevant recommendations that provide parents equal opportunity to parent.
This webinar is presented by Nicole Brisson , Ph.D.
Dr. Brisson is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and has worked in the field of intellectual disabilities since 1992. She holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in psychology and a specialization in intellectual and developmental disabilities. Dr. Brisson is the owner/director of Sage Haven Associates, Inc., a consulting, assessment, and training practice specializing in meeting the needs of parents with disabilities and their families. She is recognized as a national expert in providing competence-based parenting assessments to parents with intellectual disabilities, has developed and taught a course on parental disability and child welfare at the University of Vermont, conducted trainings, spoken at conferences, and has testified in courts across the United States. Dr. Brisson is the Vice President of TASP and a Fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Webinar flier HERE
Building Support Networks To Reduce the Risk of Isolation For Parents with IDD
September 8, 2021, 12-1:30pm EST
Recorded Webinar
Parents with IDD are too often adversely impacted by isolation, especially when living in more remote communities. This FREE webinar will consider the value of identifying and understanding the barriers to successful parenting, drawing on parent narratives. Consideration will be given to exploring the risk factors that escalate parental isolation and strategies to develop both formal and informal support systems for parents.
This webinar is presented by Tom Robinson.
Tom is the Director of Thomas Robinson Consulting, Ltd., founded in 1994, which provides individualized services in home communities through a family-centered team approach that promotes inclusion for individuals with developmental delays or disabilities in Northwest British Columbia, Canada. Tom has a BA in Psychology and has worked with services for people who have developmental disabilities for over 40 years, including work in residential services, vocational programs, family support and respite, recreational/ leisure services, college instruction and regional health promotion.
History of Disabled Parenting and How it Informed my Journey from Adoption to Advocate and Parent
November 10, 2021, 12-1:30pm EST
Recorded Webinar
As the mother of two young children, Ivanova Smith shares their personal journey from infanthood in a Latvian orphanage to adulthood as a recognized and respected disability advocate. Ivanova will talk about the history of disabled parenting, her personal journey, and share some tips on raising a toddler and a newborn amongst the ups and downs of navigating parenthood with a developmental disability.
This webinar is presented by Ivanova Smith.
Ivanova Smith is Self-Advocate leader in Washington State. They work as an activist advocate for Atwork! and University of Washington LEND program Self Advocacy Faculty. Ivanova is also involved in several self-advocacy organizations, People First of Washington, SAIL and Allies in Advocacy. Ivanova is passionate in making sure all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are given access to all aspects of life: working, having friendships in community, marriage and children. They are happily married and has two young children. Ivanova is passionate about making sure all parents with I/DD have rights and get needed supports in parenting.