Family Engagement and Services
Meet Our Family Engagement Coordinator
Meet our Family Engagement Coordinator, Edgenie Bellah. Edgenie has been with our Project since 2002. Her professional training and experience run the lifespan; from early childhood to senior citizens, public school and university services to vocational services. Edgenie is very active in statewide and national family organizations. Through it all, her best teachers have been her family and friends who share the journey of living life with a disability. They keep her passionate about community and following family leaders in system change efforts.
Want to connect with Edgenie? You may email her at bellahe@tsbvi.edu or phone her at 512-206-9423.
Consultation
Edgenie is available to work with individual families on family life as well as matters related to education, accessing medical and state agency services. This includes connecting with other families with children who are deafblind. Edgenie frequently partners with our education consultants when they meet to develop programming at a local level.
Training
Our program believes that families are the experts on their children. Participating in relevant training -including learning more about deafblind matters- and gathering information from various sources helps families build their confidence and advocacy skills. Edgenie helps family members access training on various topics and provides training to groups on family engagement. She was instrumental in the development of our successful Family Engagement and Leadership trainings that have created new and enthusiastic leaders advocating for deafblind services in schools and in the community.
Collaboration
Edgenie collaborates with various family organizations at the state and national levels. At the state level her collaboration includes such organizations as the Deaf-Blind Multi-handicapped Association of Texas, Texas Chargers, Texas Hands and Voices, Deaf-Blind Camp of Texas, Texas Hands & Voices, Partners Resource Network, and Texas Parent to Parent. She serves as one of the Family Wisdom Section Editors for Texas SenseAbilities, the publication’s section for and by family members.
At the national level, Edgenie is on the board of the National Family Association for Deafblind serving as the Affiliate Network Coordinator. She had the pleasure of being the local host for the 2012 and 2016 NFADB Family Leadership Symposium. Edgenie was Product Manager for the video on deafblind awareness, Moments of Joy. She has also worked with the National Center on Deafblindness on such projects and their Family Engagement Initiatives, Open Hands, Open Access Intervener Learning Modules.
Family Engagement Opportunities
Check out the following family engagement opportunities and visit our topical resources page.
Family-to-Family Communities Project (F2FC)
F2FC brings families together to connect, share information and resources, and offer support to one another in the journey of supporting their family member with deaf-blindness.
Each F2FC is comprised of 8-10 family members; is guided by trained Facilitators; meets once per month for 90 minutes via video-conference or phone; topics are chosen by the group and include structured conversation and open sharing. Your regular participation is vital to the group!
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for this school year. Please reach out to Edgenie at bellahe@tsbvi.edu if you wish to explore your options.
Family Recharge Zone
What is Family Recharge Zone? A blend of family-picked and family-focused training followed by a conversation exclusively for adult family members with children and adults who are blind, low vision, or deafblind (combined vision loss and Deaf/Hard of Hearing).
Dates and Times: First Thursday of every month
ASL Interpreting for both the 11:30-1:00 and 6:30-8:00 Gatherings!
Spanish Interpreting for the 6:30-8:00 Gathering! ¡Interpretación en español para la reunión de 6:30-8:00!
-
- September 5, 2024: 5 de septiembre de 2024: Three Ways Families Can Get a Strong Start to the School Year REGISTER HERE
- October 3, 2024: 3 de octubre de 2024: Orientation & Mobility – It’s a Family Thing! REGISTER HERE
- November 7, 2024: 7 de noviembre de 2024: Navigating Your Child’s Evaluations with Confidence and Advocacy REGISTER HERE
- December 5, 2024: 5 de diciembre de 2024: Making Holiday Family Memories REGISTER HERE
- February 6, 2025: 6 de febrero de 2025: Gearing Up for Summer: 2025 Camps & Extended School Year REGISTER HERE
- March 6, 2025: 6 de marzo de 2025: Making the Most of the Texas Medicaid Waiver Programs REGISTER HERE
- April 3, 2025: 3 de abril de 2025: Navigating Family Travel Adventures Together REGISTER HERE
- May 1, 2025: 1 de mayo de 2025: Empowering Every Contribution: Nurturing your Child’s Participation in Family Life REGISTER HERE
Need foreign language or sign language interpreting? Texas families, you must register by the Monday before each month’s Family Recharge Zone gatherings to allow us time to provide foreign language and/or sign language services.
Can families who live outside of Texas participate? We would love for you to join us. Please know that the training and conversations may slightly differ from your own state guidelines and regulations. We are unable to provide foreign language and sign language interpreting.
Texas SenseAbilities – 2023 Special Issue on Family Engagement: Lessons Learned From Our Families
Introduction to this Special Issue
The TX SenseAbilities team is excited to bring you a Special Edition that focuses on an important new initiative, “The Value of Family Engagement: Identifying Unique Needs and Priorities of Families with Children Who Are Deaf-Blind” (Family Engagement Report – link in article). We believe this is a “call to action” and an opportunity to stake a marker in the ground to measure our collective progress.
Current Family Engagement Initiatives
The Value of Family Engagement: Definition and Priorities
This report emerged in response to a growing need to elevate the family voice as a driving force in the decision-making and collaborative efforts of the deaf-blind technical assistance network. This report summarizes a five-month visioning process facilitated by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) to illuminate state-level priorities and national-level supports for families of children who are deaf-blind. Contributors to this work included state deaf-blind projects, deaf-blind specific family-based organizations, and other national partner organizations who support families with children who have unique needs. To read more and visit the microsite, visit https://www.nationaldb.org/products/families-engagement-priorities/.