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Volunteer Advocacy Project training set at UTM this spring

Volunteer Advocacy Project training set at UTM this spring

Posted: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:13 am

The Press 12/21

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center is offering training during the spring semester for volunteer advocates at the University of Tennessee at Martin. The comprehensive training will be held in the spring on Thursday evenings, from 5:30-8:30 p.m., beginning Jan. 13 and continuing until March 31. The training will be held on the Vanderbilt campus in The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and video-conferenced to UT Martin and other sites across the state. There is a $30 charge to cover the cost of materials for the training. 

The purpose of this project is to train volunteer advocates to provide instrumental and affective support to parents of children with disabilities. In this training, participants will learn more about special education law and advocacy strategies. At the end of the training, each participant will shadow an advocate at a special education meeting. Following graduation from the program, participants will be linked with a family of a child with a disability. Each volunteer advocate is expected to work with, at least, four families, at the discretion of The Arc and STEP. 

The training will include a binder of materials including passages from: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, No Child Left Behind, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Additionally, the participants will be given copies of each training session’s PowerPoints along with relevant materials. For each training session, the participant will be expected to read pertinent materials. 

For those interested, contact Meghan Burke at Meghan.m.burke@vanderbilt.edu, call 615-585-1420 or visit http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/vap/.

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