Hello and Happy Holiday Season!

We are writing to you with an opportunity to support our work this holiday season.

As you know, when we started Empowered to Advocate, we did so with the hope of reaching parents and caregivers who were struggling to understand and navigate the special education process.  Since starting about a year and a half ago, we have reached over 40 families through direct advocacy services, our pay what you can sessions, free workshops and presentations, and our caregiver retreat. Our goal this year is to help even more families.

We are asking for folks to sponsor scholarships for parents and caregivers who cannot financially access our direct services. While we already provide a sliding scale to all of our clients, advocacy services can still be cost prohibitive for some parents, caregivers and families. We have been providing free services for a number of parents since our inception and offering scholarships to military connected families but in order to continue to offer financial assistance we need your help. We are hoping to expand the amount of families we serve in this accessible way in the New Year.

Just like in every other area of education, getting appropriate special education services can depend on a myriad of factors including but not limited to gender, race, linguistic background, socioeconomic status and more. When we set out to provide services to parents and caregivers it was always our goal that we would be able to reach a diverse group of families, some of whom have traditionally been left out of these conversations. If you are nodding along, you know exactly what that means for educational outcomes for children with disabilities and special needs.