What can I do at One Place for Special Needs?
Welcome! As a parent of two special needs kids I understand how many hoops we jump to find good services and resources. It really shouldn’t be this hard to get our kids the support they need. I developed this website with many tools to make it easy for you to find and keep track of information, share resources and communicate with others. Here's a quick tour of the website. –Dawn Villarreal
Before we get started…
When you registered you included your zip code. A very cool thing happens when you search on this website. You can sort nearly everything by distance from your home. This makes it easier to find services, workshops and even other families in your own neighborhood.
Each section has a Bookmarks link. When you look up any information on the website (e.g. events, local resources) you can choose to bookmark it. These items appear on your bookmark page so you can find it again quickly.
Each section also has a My ______ link. Any information you contributed to the website (e.g. online resources, groups) is placed here to make it easy for you to view and edit. If you see a fun community program or event that you think other special needs families might like, please share it with the rest of us.
Products
Click on New products to see any products added in the last 30 days. You can also browse all products or search by keyword or category. If you have used any of these products please help us out by offering a rating. Your insight will assist families in making a good purchasing decision for their child.
Special note: Everyone in our product directory believes in the importance of this project and helps support One Place for Special Needs. Please consider these product vendors when you need to purchase a special needs product.
Local resources
I’m not a fan of all these so called resource sites with long alphabetical lists of services and programs. I’ve got to scroll through this information and then all I get is some basic contact information. I still have to call and find out what they do.
What I do is contact service providers, disability organizations and businesses and ask them to come here on our behalf. They add detailed information about what they do and what disabilities they work with. This helps you make an informed decision about who to contact.
You can sort the directory by name, parent rating and distance from your home. You can also search by categories or keyword search.
Special note: Service providers and organizations with featured listings have been kind enough to help support this disability project. Please consider these providers the next time you are looking for services and programs.
How you can help!
Write a review for services from our Local resources directory that you have used in the past. Parents appreciate knowing if you’ve had a good or bad experience.
Add your own recommended services to our directory. If you know of a good physician, support group or even hair stylist that works with your special needs child, don’t keep it to yourself! It’s easy to do and you’ll be helping out other families.
Become an awesome member! This website is very much a community effort. One Place for Special Needs is a self-funded project by one dedicated special needs mom; not by some large organization with a staff of employees and annual budget. Every contribution helps keep this wonderful resource going. Show your awesomeness!
Wish List
Speaking of awesome, here’s a super cool feature for families called the Wish List. You can find this on your parent shortcuts page or by clicking on the Local resources section. Check off all the services you would like for your child, teen or adult. When new programs and services are added, if it matches your wish list, you’ll receive an email about it. This way, even if you haven’t visited our site in awhile, you can be assured that you’ll never miss out on learning about a great program or service in your area.
If we haven’t reached your area yet, your wish list is a great way to know when organizations start adding information. The Local Resource directory is an ongoing project. Please be patient as we encourage businesses and service providers to list themselves. You can help by telling the people who work with your child about One Place for Special Needs.
Events
Our Event section makes it easy to find workshops and community events. Sort by date, title or distance you’re your home. Bookmark upcoming events that you might wish to attend.
When you registered, you were automatically set up to receive a monthly event email. This handy email includes two months worth of upcoming events so you never have to miss out on a great workshop or community event. You can click on your Account page to turn on or off this service.
You can help by adding events and workshops that you think other families would be interested in. You don’t have to be the event organizer to add this information. For more information about Events, see our FAQs.Online resources
We have collected nearly 3,000 disability-related web resources. Don’t forget to bookmark your favorites for easy look up later.
Help other families by rating the resources you view. All it takes is a simple click to give your star rating. This assists families in locating informative websites quickly.
Do you have resources to share? It’s pretty easy to add a resource. When you add your favorite web links they appear in your My resources page and also on your profile page. This makes it easy to share your favorite resources with your friends. For more information about Online resources, see our FAQs.Friends
It’s easy for us special needs parents to isolate ourselves. Sometimes it’s just hard to relate to our families and neighbors when our own lives feel so different. Our Friends feature is a really easy way to reach out to other special needs families in your neighborhood. You can find other families with similar life situations, live chat with logged in friends and set up play dates or social activities for your child, teen or adult. You can even do a keyword search of your child's interests to see if there's a match.
In order for Friends to work the way it is intended, we ask that our members fill out their family profile. To do that click on your profile link at the top right of the page and then update your interests, family info and photo. There’s even a place to let people know if you need help or can give help on a particular topic. For more information on using Friends, see our FAQs.
Groups
You can join or create your own group. Groups is fully searchable so you can find groups local to your area, by category, size of membership or use a keyword search. It’s easy for anyone to create a local, statewide or national group.
If you find that there are quite a few families in your area when you do a Friends search, you might consider forming a group for your neighborhood. You can organize mom’s nights, play groups or just talk about what’s going on in your community.
Discussions
Finally, one place where special needs families from around the country can talk about issues common to all of us. Please help us grow our discussions community by offering your advice and suggestions to other families.
Classifieds
Here is a place where you can sell your used therapy equipment, educational products, toys, etc. and know that it is going to be used by another family with special needs. You can place a for sale or wanted post or simply give it “free to a good home.”
If you belong to or run any groups, your classified listings are seen in those groups too. Please note this section is for gently used items. For more information about Classifieds, see our FAQs.Awareness with Attitude
These shirts and accessories celebrate our differences, challenge society views, highlight personality traits rather than labels and remind teachers that our children are different learners. They are equally fun for those with disabilities and others who just “feel” different from everyone else. All of our shirts and accessories are through CafePress.
Report a problem
Throughout the site you will see report a problem buttons. If you find “dead” web links or questionable information you can report a problem to us so it can be corrected. Please be as descriptive as possible. Thanks!
FAQs
Please see our FAQs page for even more information about One Place for Special Needs.