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Appendix C: Fact Sheet for Community Groups

Thank you for your help in recruiting families for the Childcare and Children with Special Needs Project

Through these focus groups, we hope to give parents a voice in informing policy decisions regarding TANF requirements, child care, and special needs issues.

Focus Groups in Manchester:

We will be inviting low-income parents/guardians/foster parents to attend focus groups to talk about their children with special needs and experiences finding and using child care. We offer a $50 stipend, arrange for on-site child care, and provide food.

• The focus group will be held in Manchester in late May or early June

Who is eligible to attend the focus groups?

Parents/Guardians/Foster Parents can be working or non-working. They are eligible if:

• They have a child who is six or younger with a special need
• Their family income is less than $32,900 per year/ $2740 per month

How is the project defining “special needs”?

“Children with special needs” is defined broadly for our project. We’d like to talk with families with mild, or perhaps undiagnosed special needs as well as more severe physical, mental, or behavioral problems. Examples could include:

• Physical disabilities like blindness, deafness, paralysis
• chronic illness such as asthma, sickle cell anemia, cerebral palsy, diabetes
• A need for ongoing medical procedures like daily medication, intubation, cathertization
• Mental disabilities or behavioral problems such as autism, developmental delays, learning problems, ADD or ADHD, seizures, hyperactivity, behavior problems

What do families need to do to participate?

Parents/Guardians will be screened by project team members here at the University of Southern Maine to ensure they meet criteria for participation. Our research design and all forms have been approved by our University’s Institutional Review Board to insure that we have stringent procedures for preserving confidentiality and obtaining informed consent.

• To participate, families should call…... They will get a voicemail message asking them to leave a phone number where they can be reached and times that are best to reach them.
• We try to call families back within 24 hours. We are happy to call families back evenings or weekends if they request this.

You are welcome to call ……… and speak with ………… for more information. Again, thank you for your help!

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