Navigating Road to Life Transitions Fair provides resources to families with disabilities
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — The new Navigating Road to Life Transitions Fair kicked off its first year in the Boys and Girls Club last Friday, compiling resources for families raising children with disabilities.
“I have a daughter who’s medically fragile, and in her 27 and a half years of having a disability, I’ve only been to one (of these fairs),” explained Kris Kelly, the life skills teacher and Special Olympics coach who put the event together. “I wanted to find a way to bring together people with disabilities and to be able to bring in the service vendors they work with so that families would be able to have some one-on-one time to chat with those vendors.”
The fair saw the attendance of 17 vendors, each offering a variety of resources to families dealing with disabilities issues. Social Security and Developmental Disabilities attended, as well as Mission Mountain Enterprises and Summit Independent Living. Glacier Bank attended to explain a credit program they have which allows people who may never own a credit card to still gain credit, and local colleges came to explain what services students with disabilities may receive.
With breakout sessions in the morning for each vendor to give an overview of what they offer, followed by a vendor fair in the afternoon to allow more one-on-one communication with those interested, information was readily accessible to attendees.
Kelly has been working on putting the fair together since before the start of COVID-19. While the pandemic put her plans on hold for a while, with the support of the special education and school administrations, she was finally able to start putting her ideas into motion in February of this year.
“I sat down and made a list of who I wanted to call and potential places to hold it, and I was very lucky in that the Boys and Girls Club said ‘absolutely we’d love to hold it’ … Then we just started sending out letters and getting people to reply back,” Kelly said. “Sometimes you bumble through the dark and didn’t even know (a resource) was here. So, this is a way to kind of get it all together.”
The Boys and Girls Club didn’t charge her a fee for the fair this year, and in turn Kelly didn’t charge a fee for attendees either. She plans to make this gathering of information an annual affair and hopes to get more vendors to attend each year.
To parents of children with disabilities, Kelly advises them to access as many services as possible, as soon as possible. The minimum waitlist for some services is seven years, so waiting until a child is in high school – or even entering school, if their disability is permanent – could mean missing out on services - services that allow a child with disabilities to have a fulfilling life, as well as allowing parents to continue to have a life as well.
“The more independence that you can have your child do starting young is the more independence they will have as an adult … (and) the longer you don’t have a plan in place, the harder it is,” Kelly stated. “This is just part of my life, so the more I can get this information out to other people is the most important thing for me.”
