Document 6495413

Li-Huei Wei, FCSN President
On behalf of the board of directors and staff members, I
would like to welcome you to FCSN. As we continue
our commitment to help children with special needs and
their families find hope, love, respect and support, we
hope that you will continue to be with us. Let us
envision this new millennium that will be full of
excitements and joys for the FCSN family.
FCSN is a group of caring people who commit to help
children with special needs. And, as one of many FCSN
unique characteristics, one third of our member families
are without children with special needs, they are just
normal families but with warm hearts and full of loves
to the society. We all come together to volunteer our
times and efforts, at the same time, we also enjoy the
resources that other people have contributed.
Thanks to our former chairpersons, Linmei and TsaiWei, who had established a solid foundation for FCSN.
It is evident that our organization has become stronger
and much better positioned in pursuing our slated goals.
Thanks to Su-Ti who had guided us to find the Asian
Pacific Family Resources Center as the home base for
FCSN regular gatherings. Many thanks go to Mrs.
Celia Anderson and her wonderful staff at APFRC for
not only providing us the excellent facility but also
supporting us with childcare service. I am proud that
FCSN is being recognized as a model organization in
the community and we do play an important role for the
families that have children with special needs.
As we are approaching our 4th year, we are so proud of
FCSN’s Dream Committee. The Dream committee is
working on a long-term project that will be
beneficial to all the children with special needs.
They are planning to build an activity center that
can foster job opportunities and leisure activities in
the near future. Furthermore, we are also reaching
to every member to build mutual support and care,
in order to build a warm and lovely community. I
am proud to announce that FCSN has expanded its
original support group into 4-subgroups: they are
the volunteers with children with special needs,
volunteers without children with special needs,
volunteers with Cantonese-speaking, and volunteers
of youth. I would like to encourage you to join one
of these support groups and ready to establish better
relationship among members.
Because FCSN is a non-profit organization, your
financial support is critically important. Your kind
donation would enable us to be better serve to the
needy families. I sincerely thank those individuals
and organizations that have been generous to FCSN
in the past. We are currently seeking possible
community resources for the organization. Your
generosity is genuinely welcome and very much
appreciated.
Thank to you and may God bless you and your
family!
FCSN
How to make donations to FCSN?

“
”
RFC Community Grant
1.
Alfred Lam (1-888-6814
1818)
Alfred
Donation Matching Program
of Children with Special Needs
FCSN
Friends
Alfred
4.
(May Leung)
FCSN
2.
5.
United Way
FCSN,
United Way
Friends of Children with Special Needs
Tax ID 77-0446853
Amy Wang
250 Las Palmas Ct.,
Fremont, CA 94539
3.
( Donation Matching
Program)
FCSN
(May
Leung) 1351 Rinrock Dr., San Jose, CA 95120 (408997-6286)
(
“
FCSN? ”
)

YAYA
Ed.
Lavin
Larry
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
Cheri
Saratoga
High
Workability Program
Job Coach
Saratoga Downtown International
,
Coffee Exchange
Cheri
School District
Workability
Job Coach
Program Cheri
, International Coffee Exchange
,
Job Coach
FCSN Center
Crazy
A Success Story:
Why the people at FCSN have helped us so much...
 Lena Sun
naturally speaking with the same language, sharing
their daily experiences and medical information in
the area of developmental disabilities. All those
interactions enable them to communicate and
comfort each other more effectively.
Vivian has made significant progress in her language
ability, social skills and awareness to surrounding
things since she joined Friends of Children with
Special Needs (FCSN). In fact, as the parent of
Vivian, my husband K.C.and myself have felt that we
have received even more from the organization.
There are many touching stories at FCSN. For
example, I am always amazed and deeply moved
whenever I see those parents are willing to
Because of bearing with similar concerns and worries
about their special loved ones, the parents at FCSN are
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attacked by a disease caused by a rare kind of virus.
The disease paralyzed Stanley’s back and lower
body. During the worst situations, Stanley even
could not move his lower body at all. After medical
treatments and persistent rehabilitation, Stanley
later was able to walk with some difficulties.
Because of this family hardship, Joyce had to quit
her favorite FCSN teaching position and
concentrated on taking care of her family. We all
have missed the Yeh family so much.
volunteer their times and efforts to help children with
special needs, and many of those wonderful people
even don’t have children with special needs. I am also
grateful for the FCSN youth members that help and
coach their special buddies through the activities
patiently.
I have so many good stories and people at FCSN to
talk about. Among them, there is a family which has
made a tremendous impact on my family and me 
the Yeh family.
One day, in a usual family gathering with Joyce at
her house, I unintentionally mentioned that Vivian
would have a piano recital soon. At that time, I
really thought that was just a casual conversation,
because that I have constantly shared some Vivian’s
life experiences with them.
Before joining FCSN, Vivian was very afraid of the
crowd and extremely sensitive to noises. We had so
many failed experiences of pushing Vivian through
classes or group activities. When the first time we
attended FCSN regular gathering, my expectation in
fact was set quite low  just gave Vivian another try.
Mrs. Joyce Yeh was Vivian’s class teacher at that
time. It was truly a miracle and I still did not know
how she did it: At the end of the class, Vivian was
very happy, she even wanted to stay with her teacher
instead of going home. Starting from that day,
attending FCSN regular gatherings has become an
important to-do item on Vivian’s schedule. She knew
very well, no matter how she felt, either happy or sad,
Mrs. Yeh’s kind smiles or warm hugs would always be
there for her.
It was a big shock when I saw Joyce and Stanley
both appeared in Vivian’s recital. They brought her
a nice bunch of flowers and watched through the
entire event. Knowing they were coming, Vivian
was so exciting, she ran to her Aunt Joyce and gave
her a big warm hug. After the recital, we said
thanks and goodbye to each other. when I saw that
Stanley walked away slowly and awkwardly with
his two yet-recovered legs, I could no longer control
my emotion any more, my tears just burst out. I
will never forget the picture I saw in that afternoon.
Joyce has two wonderful sons, Victor and Yu-Ming,
the two teenage boys were also participating in
FCSN’s activities. Stanley, a truly warm-hearted
gentleman, who was always helping in the kitchen area
at the gathering, he was working hard but very quiet.
In my mind, the Yehs is such a model family.
A necessary condition for an organization to be
successful is to have good people involved in. There
is no doubt in my mind, as long as there are people
like the Yeh family at FCSN, there will be many
success stories yet to tell.
Unfortunately, a few months ago, Stanley was
 James Chiao
Many of the FCSN members have visited our
Internet web site at http://come.to/FCSN. If we already
have a web site, why do we need another intranet
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web site? How is it different? Before we answer the
question, let’s think of the following situations:
• I forgot about last week’s FCSN regular
gathering, I wish some one could have send
me a reminder.
• I’d like to know the latest FCSN’s group
activities and news.
• I lost the latest flyer and need a map and
direction to FCSN’s summer picnic.
• I want to find out the email address and
phone number of one of the members.
• I’d like to start a discussion group with other
FCSN members.
• I’d like to send a greeting card to another
FCSN member.
• I have questions that I’d like to ask all
members.
Intranet Features
The FCSN Intranet is associated with Intranet.com
which is a company that specializes in hosting
Intranets for groups, clubs and companies. The
Intranet is easy to use and has the many features
which makes it easy to communicate with other
group members such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Make announcement and distribute the latest
FCSN announcements and news
Share the FCSN event calendar and send
reminders for all key FCSN events
Share ideas, information and messages with
other FCSN members
Browse though the photo albums for all the
FCSN activities
Look up the group member list for phone
numbers and email addresses
Look up the FCSN group calendar for the
upcoming events and maps
Links to other web sites such as PHP, FCSN
and Photopoint web sites
Links to FCSN Photo Album
If you have at any time experienced one of these
situations, then the FCSN Intranet is for you. In
fact, the Intranet was set up solely to facilitate the
inter-communication between FCSN members. The
biggest difference between the two web sites is that
the Internet site is designed for a wide audience;
and the Intranet site is designed for FCSN members
only. Therefore, the emphasis and features of the
two sites are quite different.
The photo album has to be the most popular site in
our Intranet; in fact, we have recorded hundreds of
hits during the last few months. To view the
albums, simply click on the FCSN
Photo Album in the Group links area.
How do I sign up?
To sign up, just follow the 3 easy steps:
1. On the web browser address: type in
http://fcsn.intranets.com
2. For the first time user, click the “register”
button and use the keyword “special” for the
registration code.
3. Follow instructions.
If you have any question regarding FCSN Intranet,
please contact Jim Chiao (408)867-0912.
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 Susan Hwang
first, I could not tell whether she didn’t like me or
simply because I was a stranger that she was not
paying much attention to me. She was
unresponsive to my presence, then when we played
ball she even refused to play with me and walked
away when I tried to play with her. After I started
talking to her and guiding her to what we were
doing, she caught up quickly, and pretty soon we
had a great game going on. From that I started
noticing new things about her. She likes everything
to be organized and the notices quite a lot around
her. For the next couple of weeks, we talked and
played together, I could tell I was making a progress
and we were becoming better friends.
Life is full of unexpected surprises. You never realize
how lucky you really are until you meet someone who
is less fortunate. I was naïve and always assumed that
everyone would have what I had. However, life
doesn’t always work out that way. My cousin, Vivian,
who is a wonderfully talented girl, was the first person
who introduced me the wonderful group of people--Friends of Children with Special Needs.
When I first came to FCSN I was a little shy and
nervous about the environment. I didn’t know how to
act or say to my special (kids) friends. I tried to
communicate with them by using facial expressions,
hand gestures but sometimes I felt that I was either
being rejected or even ignored. Although this
frustrated me some, I still wanted to help despite my
unsuccessful results. After awhile of observing the
people that had been there a little longer, I started to
understand how to communicate: I would talk to them
like we were the oldest friends and encourage them to
talk to me by asking them questions.
It is a great feeling of when you make a new friend.
The experience with Ya-ya encouraged me to be
friendlier to everyone and that, in turn, makes me a
better person. It also teaches me to be more patient
and confident with myself: Before I joined this
group, I didn’t know how to act with people
different than I was. Now, at school when I see
people who are different than I am, I know what to
say and exactly what to do. It has brought me a
whole new perspective and made me into a whole
new person. The experience with Ya-ya is
something I will never forget, it inspires me to make
friends that would last for a lifetime.
The person who I worked closely with was Ya-ya. I
was drawn to her in the beginning because we had
something in common: our nickname. I remember
once when someone called the name Ya-ya and I
turned around. To my surprise, that person was not
talking to me. From that instant on, I decided to find
out who this phantom girl was! Finally, I found her. At
⇐ FCSN Integrated Education
Program: Ms. Karen Hook’s
Group Music Therapy/Kinder
Music...
Can you tell which one is
Susan in the circle?
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
“
”
“
“
”
”
FCSN
“
”
FCSN
(FCSN Bulletin Board)
Volunteers needed:
If you, your family members or your friends that would like to volunteer helps at FCSN, please contact the
following parent support coordinators according to your situation:
• If volunteers are associated with special needs children at home, please contact Su-Fen Wu (408-9279959) or Li Wang (408-446-0348).
• If volunteers are not associated with special needs children at home, please contact Chiu-Fenn Lan (510471-8435) or Shu-Ling Chiang (408-259-4375)
• All youth volunteers please contact Yvonne Chen (408-279-3035).
•
If volunteers only speak Cantonese, please contact Minni Yu (408-735-1702).
FCSN Library:
If you have any question about FCSN library, or you have good books/tapes and like to share with other FCSN
members, please contact the library coordinator Ling-Ru Wang (408-741-0147).
From the editor:
Special thanks to Mrs. Chia-Jung Kuo (
) for helping Chinese typing in this issue of FCSN Newsletter.
Seminar Topic Preference Survey:
Parent support group is currently conducting a survey to solicit most interesting and needed seminar topics for
future FCSN seminar series. If you haven’t done that please contact Mrs. Minni Yu to request a survey form and
complete it ASAP.
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Attachment 1: FCSN 2000-2001 Fall Sememster Seminar Series
Date
Guest Speaker
Topic
9/23/00
Debra Wright
IEP Meeting
10/7/00
Dr. Bradford Murray
Vision Therapy
10/21/00
Dr. Summer Hsia
Early Intervention
11/4/00
Dr. Kathy Gee
Full Inclusion
11/18/00
Dr. Heather Erba
Alternative Treatments for Children with Special Needs
12/2/00
Cathlin Ho
How to Communicate and Understand Our Teenagers
Attachment 2: FCSN Education Program, Teaching Plan 2000
Teaching Plan 2000
Teaching Supporters/Coordinators: Anna Wang, Christine Chen
Goals:
1. Increase participation for all children with special needs.
2. Adapt an easy and structured format that would benefit both children & teachers.
3. Form a teaching staff entirely made up of volunteers to relieve parents of children with special needs to attend
parent support or group activities.
4. The needs of each special child will be assessed after each class to see how he/she could be better served.
(He/she will be assigned a consistent helper, peer, youth, or adult according to his/her need.)
Class Format for all children 13 and under:
1. 4 Classes, 30 minutes each. (each class's teachers will prepare 30 min. of teaching material, and repeat
teaching it for 4 times)
2. Special needs children will be divided evenly into 4 groups according to age.
3. Each group consists approximately the same number of special needs kids and regular kids, about 10 total.
4. Each group will rotate through each of the 4 classes, making up 2 hrs class time.
5. The Classes are:
A)
B)
C)
D)
Class
EXERCISE
ARTS & CRAFTS
DANCE
GAMES
Teacher
RYAN GLOVER,YVONNE CHEN
JOYCE LAN, SHU LING CHIANG
JOYCE HU, NEETU SABHARWAL
JANE LIN, SUSAN CHEN
6. Other Needs: 5 Youth helpers, 4 adult helpers.
Adult Helper: Anmin Tseng, Jen Tsao, Chia-Jung Kuo, Annie Tang
New Dolphin Class for Youth:
1) Teachers: Linmei Chiao, Bih-Fen Wu.
2) Class Format: 3 class periods - exercise, social, music
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We thank...
All FCSN members would like to express their thanks to the following people or companies for their generosity
and considerations to our family members. With these warm helps and supports, we strongly believe that our
children will have an even better tomorrow.
Year 2000 Donations:
NEC Electronics
Te-Fang & Tu-Ting Cheng
Show-Chen Jennifer Ma
United Way
Tina Peng
Michael & Jenny Lin
Jinn Hsiung Wen
Amy Wang
Su-Fen & Tsai-Wei Wu
Gary Chen
Sheau-Yin Hsia
$500.00
$10,000.00
$2000.00
$100.00
$200.00
$100.00
$50.00
$600.00
$245.00
$200.00
$200.00
James Chiao
CBC
Caroline and Joey Kuo
Paul Sun
Chun-Fu Su
Jason &Katherine Wen
Chin-Hui Hsiu
Shiuhwoo Lee
Resources for Family and
Community (RFC) 1999-2000
Community Grant
$200.00
$1,000.00
$200.00
$500.00
$300.00
$50.00
$160.00
$500.00
$9,200
Mrs. Amy Wang
Friends of Children with Special Needs
250 Las Palmas Ct., Fremont, CA 94539
If you are interested in joining our organization and/or would like to have some comments to us, please contact
Li-Huei Wei at (408) 996-0858 or Amy Wang at (510) 226-9377.
(408) 996-0858
(510) 226-9377
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