"The best way out of a difficulty is through it. "

Purpose

Serving families touched by special needs

With an emphasis on respite and adventure

For the preservation of the joy of family

The LaChris Connection's mission is to support families of children with disabilities in ways that enable them to enjoy life to the fullest! We serve those with all types of diagnoses ranging from physical handicaps, social and emotional challenges and/or medical needs and their corresponding developmental delays.

We believe that.

• Extraordinary activities, adventure and relaxation create emotional and physical health for families.
• Care providers can offset the demands of special needs, allowing balance for all family members.
• The family as a whole is only as strong as its members who can each enjoy the benefits of respite.

TLC encourages families to pursue activities they may think are out of their realm of possibilities. Our mission is to create easier access to opportunities, information and funds needed for these pursuits. We want parents to be able to choose.choose to relax more at home, enjoy family vacations, escape on parent getaways or see all of their children enjoy adventures & sports.

We relieve parents of the time consuming searches that make these choices possible, such as:

• Specialized Child Care Resources
• Accessible Family Vacations
• Support Groups for Parents and Care Providers
• Adaptive Sports and Camps for Children

We bring families closer to these resources via our website and by providing the following direct services:

• Continual recruitment of care providers so as to have a regularly updated pool of potential employees for families. We utilize a number of sources for recruitment, such as educational institutions for nursing and therapy students, community organizations and faith communities.
• Equipping care providers to serve special needs children and their families by providing training opportunities.
• Sponsoring gatherings for families and care providers to meet one another in a casual setting (see "Meet the Parents").
• Arranging and funding of evenings out and vacations for parents of special needs children, including the provision of care providers or the funds to pay for their current care givers.
• Funding for accessible vacations for entire families of special needs children, including the provision of an accompanying care provider or the funds to pay for one of their choice.
• The founding and facilitation of Marin Respite and Childcare Collaborative (MRCC), a committee of Marin Co. and S.F. Bay Area agencies that serve the same clientele. MRCC meets monthly to seek solutions to the ongoing need for respite provision.

In addition, our future goals are to gather and provide knowledge on common projects so that families need not "reinvent the wheel" each time they embark on such challenges as:

• A.D.A. home remodeling
• Vehicle modification
• Adaptive curriculum resources
• Successful communication with the medical community