Parents
Hi there.
As you may or may not be aware, the family is at the very heart of Portage. Whilst locally many parents and carers are active in giving support and information to others, there are 3 places on the board of the National Portage Association to provide a voice for the parents and carers of those who receive, have received or are eligible to receive Portage. Our purpose is to provide input and ideas to the NPA Board from parents or to offer feedback on portage from a parents perspective. There are 4 board meetings a year that we attend. These are typically 3rd Friday of the month in January, March, June, and September.
Currently there are 2 of us on the NPA board, with a vacancy to fill for anyone who is interested. Both of us are parents of children with special needs, and both of us have received Portage in the past. If you have ever been in our position or know anyone who is, you’ll know for sure, the very high regard and overwhelming gratitude we feel towards those who have provided us with Portage over what to begin with were some of the most frightening, desperate and often lonely times of our lives.
We do have a good idea of how you might be feeling right now, and chances are, things aren’t quite how you’d planned them to be. What both Gary and I can tell you is that actually we are both very happy with the way that things have turned out, and, despite the obvious, and sometimes inevitable sad times, there are an equal if not greater number of awe inspiring great times too.
We want to make sure that our voice continues to be heard. We want to make sure that where great things happen locally that we can spread the word nationally. We get a great sense of purpose and fulfilment undertaking our roles on the board, but we cannot do it without you, the parents. Without your views, what all we’ll be able to present will of course be David and Gary’s perspective, so please just email us with ideas or feedback so we can take to the quarterly board meetings.
We monitor the parents@portage.org.uk email address as best we can in between our own busy lives, and although we couldn’t possibly guarantee to respond to you immediately, we do try our very best. If it’s a query, or some advice, even a request to be put in touch with other parents with children with special needs similar to your own, then please feel free to contact us. If we can help we always will.
The NPA board really struggles to get the feedback and general input from parents. I myself, as well as Gary have tried on many occasions to get parents engaged with only limited success. Often this is because they simply don’t have the time to spare due to everything else going on in what is a very difficult time in their lives. The thing is, the more information and articles of what each and every one of you have experienced we get, the easier things can become for all of us. So if you can spare a thought and then some time to put something together and email it to us at the email address below, We’d be really grateful. We really want to populate the website’s Gallery pages with as many of your photos as possible too.
Get in contact with us at the following new email address parents@portage.org.uk
David and Gary
Parent Representatives