ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT 

SPAN PARENT ADVOCACY NETWORK

SPAN Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN) is the home of the NJ Parent Training and Information Center (PTI), Family Voices/Family to-Family Health Information Center (FV/F2FIC), NJ Statewide Parent to Parent (P2P), and Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health state organization.

Due to the vision of the Executive Director, Diana Autin, SPAN was the first PTI in the country to cover education, health (FV/F2FHIC), mental health (FFCMH), and family support (P2P) as a one-stop for parents. SPAN is staffed by 65 diverse staff, most of whom are parents of children, youth and young adults with disabilities and special healthcare needs from a variety of racial, ethnic, language, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds. SPAN provides individual assistance, training, and support for families, youth/young adults, and professionals across all the systems that impact children and families.

SPAN develops the leadership knowledge and skills of families and youth/young adults to engage in systems change to improve the systems that impact children, youth and families, especially those facing the greatest challenges and disparities in access to services and outcomes. Finally, SPAN provides information, technical assistance, and support to family organizations including Parent Centers and Family to Family Health Information Centers across the country to enhance their capacity to serve children and families, partner with state agencies and professional organizations, engage in systems change, and maintain effective non-profit organizations

Statewide, SPAN now has a multitude of projects on early childhood, child welfare, maternal/child health, support for military families, Special Education Volunteer Advocates to attend IEP meetings, transition to adult life/youth projects and more. Regionally, SPAN is the home of REAL (Reach-Access-Link) Transition Partners and NE-PACT (Navigating Excellence Parent Center Assistance and Collaboration Team) providing technical assistance to 26 other parent centers (Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, US Virgin Islands, and Vermont).