Community Engagement

When COVID-19 rocked Pennsylvania, we learned some very important things about ourselves as families and our ability to adapt. The most important thing that we learned is that family matters more than we realize, and families did – indeed – rise to the occasion. In the wake of the pandemic, we’re eager to offer a host of workshops, summits, and microlearning opportunities geared towards helping families and individuals reengage with their communities. Every three months, we will focus on a new topic with the overarching themes of Wellness, Resilience, and Community Engagement. All workshops are presented by individuals with disabilities and family members. The themes include:

Future Planning and Living Options
Pandemics, Health Equity, and Being Prepared
Wellness and Resiliency
Doing it My Way- Participant Directed Services
Maximizing Potential- Technology and Remote Supports

Community Engagement Summits- Participant Directed Services

Creating an Everyday Life using Waiver Services comes with some exciting opportunities and challenges. Many individuals use Participant Directed Services to pursue their Vision and create the life they want. Join the PA Family Network and local experts as we explore more about Participant Direction and offer resources and information.

Each Summit will be held from 11:30am-7:30pm.

Join any summit convenient to you to hear from experts focused on the experience of people with intellectual disabilities/autism and their families.

Topic: Participant Directed Services

Family Friendly Hours!

March 20- Greater Philadelphia Area
- Register Here
March 21- Allentown, PA
- Register Here
March 28- Lancaster, PA
- Register Here
April 3- Cranberry, PA
- Register Here
April 4- Altoona, PA
- Register Here

PLEASE NOTE: There are three registration types to accommodate all schedules. Each session will contain new information, nothing will be repeated. The registration types are Afternoon, Evening, and Full Day. The Afternoon session is from 11:30am-3:00pm. The Evening Session is from 3:00pm- 7:30pm. The Full Day Session is from 11:30am-7:30pm.

Register to Request a Resource Table at one or ALL of our Summits here- www. pafamilynetwork.org/resource

Summit Sessions Include…

Morning Keynote: The Person Centered Plan is NOT the outcome

Presented by Bob Sattler

Person Centered Planning has been around for a long time yet we find people aren’t living the lives they desire. The plan is not where we end, but rather where we begin to help create someone’s desired life. It’s an instructional guide to help the dreams and desires become a reality. It guides the person, those supporting the person and the system to listen and act on what the person wants. This requires us to take a journey of discovery.

About Bob Sattler

Bob has been involved in supporting people for decades! Starting off as a Direct Care Professional shaped his career by recognizing people need to be in control of their own lives and supported to make that happen. He started his own provider agency to show others how that could happen not only for those receiving supports, but also for the employees of the organization. He now works at a national level helping states and providers transform their supports to create real lives for people with lived experience.

Afternoon Keynote: Sustaining Participant Directed Services & Housing Models

Presented by David Gates

This session will focus on the intersection between waiver-funded services and housing models that are not owned or rented by the service provider. There will be an overview of waiver services that can support an individual in their own home and the situations each is best suited for including the pros and cons of each. Then, innovative models that foster sustainable participant directed services and housing will be highlighted with presentations from families and their supporters who have created some of these models or are in the process of developing them. Finally, there will be an opportunity for input from summit participants to identify areas for advocacy to increase models to sustain participant directed services and housing.

About David Gates

David Gates has represented and worked with individuals with developmental disabilities, their families and support groups in federal and state courts, administrative agencies and the PA legislature since 1976. He is a Member of the Housing Subcommittee of ODP’s Information Sharing and Advisory Committee of ODP. He was Project Lead for the PA Developmental Disabilities Council’s grant on Housing Transition Tenancy Sustaining Provider Training (2021-22), Project Lead on the Urban Housing Options Demonstration Project grant (2017-2021) and is currently consulting for the PA Family Network on their Housing Myth Busting grant.

What to Expect from a Professional Supports Broker

Presented by Marian Frattarola-Saulino, MSW

The Supports Broker service is included in the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs’ Community Living, Consolidated and Person/Family Directed Support Waivers. It is designed to assist, educate, guide and support the waiver participant and their representative (if one is selected) to manage their Participant Directed Service(s). The Supports Broker’s role is to amplify and ensure the person’s aspirations, preferences and needs are at the center of all considerations related to the person leading their own services.

About Marian Frattarola-Saulino, MSW

Marian respects everyone as the experts of their own lives and works to build coalitions where people themselves decide the expertise they need, to build the lives they want. Marian’s career includes experiences as a DSP, Residential Service Director, Supports Broker and Executive Director. She co-founded Values Into Action, organizations that offer individualized services exclusively in people’s own homes and communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She also helped to start the Collaborative for Citizen Directed Supports-New Jersey, and the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports, membership organizations focused on enhancing sustainable self-directed systems.

Lunch, Dinner, and More!

A lunch buffet will be provided at 11:30am during registration.
A snack will be held at 3:00pm.
A Dinner Buffet will be provided at 5:30pm.

Other sessions will include…

“What to Expect from a Professional Supports Broker” – Learn what a Supports Broker can/cannot do for you and more importantly what you should expect them to know and do when they are supporting your loved ones wants and needs!
Hear from an Agency With Choice provider and PPL on “The Ins and Outs of Agency with Choice & Vendor Fiscal models”! – Hear the things about AWC & Vendor Fiscal that you need to know, but no one else tells you!
Hear from a Panel of Experts with lived experience – People with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism will be joined by their Service and Support Professional to talk about their experiences, and will take questions.

There will also be a Resource Room with Exhibitors of all kinds that can support individuals and families, and a “Wellness Room” to learn about Reflexology, Journaling, Aromatherapy, Sensory Integration, and more!