Note: This dispatch was changed on Oct. 4, 2011, to reflect major agenda changes for this training event. Registration, scheduling and location information has not changed.
An October conference in Belfast will address the creation of safe school and home environments for students with autism, and support available to help people with disabilities to make the transition from school to adult life.
Presenter Matt Brown is a U.S. Probation Officer who has delivered autism training to law enforcement and emergency medical services personnel in the United States and Canada. Presenter Karen Gorris-Hicock is an information specialist with the Autism Society of Maine.
The conference, “Navigating the Transition from Student to Adult Life,” takes place Oct. 26 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Belfast’s University of Maine Hutchinson Center. Attendees can participate remotely at sites in Bethel, Caribou, Hartland and Machias.
The conference is sponsored by the Down East Communities of Practice Planning Committee, of which the Maine Department of Education Student Assistance Team is a member.
Register by Oct. 18 by emailing Heather Ball at hball@maine.edu. Send the $10 registration fee to:
Sheryl Banden
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
Make checks payable to “Treasurer, State of Maine.”
Call Nancy Drake at 207-255-3625 with questions about the conference, scholarships for parents and special accommodations.
Matt Brown is absolutely amazing. I really wish I could attend this. I have babies now, so it is very difficult! But I have a children on the spectrum….14 and 16 and 1 and haven’t exactly had the support I have needed for the oldest two. Lucky my fourteen year old has been doing well. This is a great thing here!