American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Special Issue: The Federation in Partnership BUILDING PARENT PARTNERSHIPS
by Katie D. Nelson
From the Editor: Katie Nelson is an enthusiastic new leader in the parents' chapter of the Utah affiliate of the NFB. This is her story.
My husband and I are fairly new members of the NFB. We joined our local affiliate in 2018. My husband has been blind his whole life, and our son was born blind as well. He inherited the same genetic change as his father and grandmother. We are very quiet and reserved by nature, so we were grateful to join our NFB affiliate and watch for a while.
I was surprised and very grateful when our affiliate president asked me a couple of months in advance if I would be interested in attending the parent training in Baltimore aligned with the Washington Seminar. I would go in place of a parent who was no longer able to attend. I accepted gladly, and immediately I scheduled my absences from work. Our group was small, with two parents from Chicagoland, a veteran parent and board member, and our two trainers—Carlton Walker and Carol Castellano.
As a career educator I've attended my fair share of trainings. This one was different. Despite my experiences as the spouse of a blind man and the parent of a blind child, there was so much I didn't yet know.
We discussed various aspects of advocacy and the power of a collective group. We learned best practices for leading out in our respective areas and how to build a network of families. Attending in February 2020, we were among the last tourists in the Baltimore and Washington, DC, area before the world shut down due to COVID.
Armed with knowledge, I was ready to help strengthen efforts in Utah with our very dedicated current parent leader, Sarah Erb. Many paths had been paved in the early 2000s by a very strong and motivated group of parents in our state. Sarah had been working to clear the underbrush and reinvigorate Utah.
However, the pandemic has had an impact on every aspect of life, including my momentum from the parent training. The good news is that we just wrapped up our state convention in Utah. To strengthen our numbers, and because we share common ideals, we've combined the Parents of Blind Children Group with the Blind Parents Group. In this way we formed new leadership that is seven parents deep. We have a balance of blind parents and parents of blind children. I look forward to pulling out my training materials and reviewing everything I learned in Baltimore. I hope to take all that I gained from my training and combine it with my further growth as a parent. Although we're still dealing with the impact of pandemic living, I have confidence that Utah will soon be a state to watch. We are blossoming toward an era of renewed strength.