About us
The decade began with major accolades! P2PGA’s health services and supports were recognized by US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as one of the top three programs in the nation for supporting families in navigating systems of care for children and youth with special health care needs.
This decade began with P2PGA helping to lead the work to pass a state Board of Education rule banning seclusion and significantly limiting restraint of public school students, as an integral part of a coalition of organizations. This was and continues to be one of the strongest state rules in the nation. Our organization was one of the first “Parent Center Standards of Excellence” Award winners in the nation. This award recognized our efforts to improve outcomes for children and families and to positively impact professionals, schools and communities. We became part of the Southeast ADA Center, administered by Syracuse University, serving as the state of Georgia point of contact. And as The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was rolled out nationwide, we served as ACA Navigators, helping to enroll families and individuals in health insurance. We began serving Parent Centers in the southeastern United States. In 2016, Our contract with the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) was expanded to introduce the Parent Partner project. Through this funding, P2P employs up to seven Parent Partners who work in participating specialty medical clinics and public health centers in Georgia providing support to families whose children with disabilities and special healthcare needs who are served in those settings.
And yet, like other decades, we had much more to accomplish and this time, our focus was on regional and national work! Nationally, we joined a group of 5 other nonprofits in being awarded a federal grant to be Regional Technical Assistance Centers for Parent Centers (RPTAC). In collaboration with 5 other statewide family-led nonprofits, we launched National PLACE, a member-based nonprofit designed to empower families and family-led organizations to advocate for enhanced, meaningful parent involvement and leadership in all policy decision-making that impacts services for children and families. We also began serving as part of the National Center on Systemic Improvement (NCSI), leading Part C programs in improving outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families, and also ensuring the family voice is actively and meaningfully involved in education system reform and improvement. And as the decade came to an end, P2PGA began overseeing the development and implementation of an online staff training system as part of the Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR), a Technical Assistance Center that helps Parent Centers across the nation. We also began serving as part of the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) enhancing ECTA’s technical assistance activities related to building state systems’ capacity to meaningfully engage families and Parent Centers in Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education systems.
At the beginning of the decade, we proudly announced the completion of a two-year project—the Parent to Parent Resource Directory available on the Internet (The Special Needs Database). This was the first online searchable database in the nation with resources for families! And was recognized by TechBridge’s Advancing Community Through Technology (ACTT) award as being one of the top three most innovative uses of technology by a Georgia nonprofit agency. We collaborated with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to promote healthcare insurance coverage for all families with children with disabilities. We began expanding the Supporting Parent services to parents whose primary language is Spanish; and through a partnership with the Goizueta Foundation, we expanded to additional rural counties and increased our translation and interpretation services. With great eagerness, P2PGA implemented an online pictorial, consumer friendly “Roadmap to Disability Services.” The Roadmap was and is wildly successful! The name was later changed to “Roadmap to Success” and continues to be expanded and enhanced, as well as replicated by other nonprofits across the nation.
And yet, we were not done growing in the 2000’s! The organization expanded its statewide presence, establishing offices in Albany and Rome, and took a leading role in organizing the first Parent Leadership Coalition Navigator Teams. And in 2006, we partnered with the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities to hire a full time Navigator Team Coordinator to continue expansion of our Navigator Project. Sustainable funding for this unique parent leadership program was secured through Georgia’s Department of Human Services in 2007. Also that year, we were awarded two federal grants: the Family to Family Health Information Center and the Parent Training and Information Center grants and Parent to Parent of Georgia nearly tripled in size! As the decade came to an end, P2PGA collaborated with Easter Seals in its Champions for Children initiative to provide financial relief to families denied the Katie Beckett Waiver. And our Navigator Project of building parent leadership was named a Project of National Significance by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (one of only 10 projects across the nation).
In the early 90’s P2PGA was established as the Statewide Early Intervention Resource Directory for services to infants and toddlers identified as having developmental delays (The Babies Can’t Wait Central Directory). And in 1992, we began providing our database of resources as the statewide directory of information to all people of all ages with disabilities. In 1998, our organization proudly hosted the International Parent to Parent Conference in Atlanta. The conference provided an opportunity for parents, family members, and people with disabilities to come together and learn how best to support individuals with disabilities and their families. More than 1,000 parents, family members and professionals attended.
During the 80’s, Parent to Parent of Georgia started as a three-year project of the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, to provide emotional support to parents of children with disabilities through our signature Supporting Parents service, before becoming our own private nonprofit organization. We were the only network in Georgia that supported the emotional needs of parents whose children experience all types of disabilities. Then in the late 80’s, we developed a database of resources and information that truly helped to launch us into our future!