Family Network Thames Valley

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Where we come from, to where we’re going

The roots of Family Network Thames Valley began around 1988, when a small number of families started looking for preschool options for their young children with disabilities. Families and educators who believed in inclusion started to gather regularly, and the discussions focused on the dreams of increasing options for children to attend their neighbourhood schools with their brothers, sisters and friends. Thus began the London Chapter of Integration Action Group (later IAI, or Integration Action for Inclusion), and the opportunity to have our voices heard at local Special Education Advisory Committees. Our children were pioneers, paving the way for the future as they were being welcomed into their local schools.

The group was instrumental in hosting many local and regional gatherings and conferences, and continued to advocate for inclusion as their children headed to secondary school. There were varying degrees of struggle and success, but the message was always clear and unwavering, that our sons and daughters had the right to learn alongside their peers, and have the same access to opportunities leading to a good life when leaving the public school system.

Our group started to change as we had a dual focus: inclusive education and advocacy for community life after high school. Known at first as London Family Network (LFN), we were born as a family group with an affiliation to Family Alliance Ontario (FAO). We continued to be active in both IAI and FAO, but as the young people of the core group of families starting to plan for their careers and lives after high school, the focus shifted. Our efforts were on learning more about individualized funding and how to increase opportunities for young adults in our local communities. The struggle to get younger families involved in advocacy for inclusive education was reflected in the membership of our groups.

Because of our continued belief in the strong core values of citizenship, inclusion, and quality community life, we started to bring people together to learn from families that were paving the way in the province of Ontario as their sons and daughters wanted new options, rather than the traditional day programs and segregated group living that had existed for so many years. We learned that it was possible to have your own home, choose where and who you lived with, go to post secondary education, have real jobs, customize the supports to match a person's interests and passions, and have lots of things to do in the community that did not have to be disability focused.

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