Creating Connections

Who do you turn to when you have a parenting question? Your own parents, best friends, or a parenting expert like Dr. Sears? In my own parenting journey, these sources haven't always been the most helpful...despite everyone's good intentions. As a mom of a child with special needs, my family and friends are always happy to listen and lend love and support, but because they haven't walked in my shoes, they don't necessarily know how to answer my questions or where to guide me for resources. When my nine-year-old son was diagnosed with autism at age three, I thankfully found a number of online discussion groups made up of smart, savvy parents who helped me to both  muster my own courage and also find the resources that I needed to begin my son's healing journey. Six years later, our family is strong, our son makes continual progress and I make sure to visit those online forums so that I can share my experiences (and maybe even some wisdom) with new parents who are just making their way through the diagnosis experience. 
At jkidphilly, one of our main goals is to create opportunities for parents raising Jewish children to meet, connect and share experiences. We work on this goal by hosting play dates across the Greater Philadelphia area, through our Our Jewish Home and Making Connections programs, and also by creating online communities. Many of you have already found us on facebook, meetup and twitter--and now we're adding discussion forums right here on our jkidphilly web site.
What is unique about our discussion forums is that we're bringing questions and experiences about Jewish parenting into the mix. So while I have lots of special needs discussion forums to go to, I will now have a place to ask other Jewish parents about their experiences finding inclusive preschool, synagogue and camp experiences...as well as discussing advocates, IEPS, social skills and all of the many issues that are part of life raising kids with different abilities.
We've tried to create discussion groups for all different kinds of parents and for parents (and grandparents, too) along different stages of the journey. You'll find a group for expecting parents, birth--eighteen months, nineteen months to three-year-olds, three to six-year-olds, and seven to twelve-year-olds. You'll find forums for interfaith, multicultural, single, LGBTQ parents. You'll find forums for Jewish parents new to the Philly area who'd like to connect to other families. You'll find a general forum to ask questions and seek opinions from a broad range of parents. And if you are looking for a forum that you don't find, just let us know and we'll add a new group.
We look forward to hearing your voice and encouraging new connections on our forum!
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer
Program Director, Family Engagement, Bucks County