Family to Family Health Information Center
Parent to Parent of Virginia has been a lead partner in Virginia's Family to Family Health Information Center since 2005. Formerly called the VA INFO Center and now known as the F2F Center, Parent to Parent of Virginia, the Partnership for People with Disabilities, Medical Hone Plus, Inc., and the Federation of Families and are working together to help families of children with special health care needs: obtain information and referrals; develop effective partnerships with health care providers; strengthen parenting and advocacy skills; receive training on health care insurance coverage, Home and Community-Based Services Waivers, and other health care topics; and receive family to family peer support. To date, over 950 families have received support from Virginia’s F2F Center. For more information, click here, call 877-264-8366, or visit www.va-info.org.

Care Connection Collaboration
Since 2003, Parent to Parent of Virginia has received funding to collaborate with Virginia's Care Connection for Children programs that are funded by the Title V program of the Virginia Department of Health. Care Connection for Children programs assist families of children with special health care needs in accessing specialty medical care; assisting with coordinating care and services; assisting with obtaining health insurance for the child; and by providing information and referral to community resources.

Through Parent to Parent of Virginia, parent staff have provided:

• Outreach on Parent to Parent of Virginia and Care Connection for Children services
• One-to-one emotional and informational support to parents of children with special health care needs
• IEP advocacy
• Training focused on enhancing parents' skills in becoming more active in the financing and coordination of their child's health care

To date, over 800 parents and providers have been trained on the Care Coordination Notebook: Financing your Child's Health Care (2005). Now in Spanish.

Download (requires Adobe Acrobat).
To order hard copy of this book (specify English or Spanish), or for more information.

Community Friends Program
In 2002, Parent to Parent of Virginia received funding from the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities to pilot a program based on the Community Friends Project implemented by the Native American Families Together Parent Center. The intent of Virginia's Community Friends Program was to ensure that children with disabilities and their families receive culturally responsive and community-based family support and information services. The project promoted partnerships between parents of children with disabilities and the professionals who serve them through training, information and networking.

Community Friends are parents of children with disabilities and chronic illness that live in the same community, shop in the same stores, and their children go to the same schools. They receive advocacy training to support other families in their community by:

• Conducting sharing sessions with families of children with disabilities and/or special health care needs about their concerns and needs
• Providing individual support to families on the educational rights of their children with disabilities and/or special health care needs
• Giving information on community resources

TO ORDER Community Friends Training Manual (2003) or for more information, click here.

Dental Health Summit
In January 2007, Parent to Parent of Virginia, in collaboration with Medical Home Plus, Inc., received a grant from the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors to plan and hold a dental summit devoted to increasing access to quality oral health care for children and youth with disabilities.

The Strong Roots for Healthy Smiles Oral Health Summit on children and youth with disabilities was held on July 27, 2007 in Richmond, Virginia. The summit brought together family members, advocates, medical and dental providers, and state and local agency representatives and officials. The diversity of people created an open, accepting and engaging environment that welcomed the thoughts and perspectives of all participants.  The Strong Roots for Healthy Smiles report includes a summary of Summit discussions and findings. Click on the picture below to download a copy of the report.   

Dental Health Summit Report (2007)
Download (requires Adobe Acrobat) or TO ORDER Dental Health Summit Report

To request copies of Summit public awareness materials and powerpoint presentations, click here

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