Family Connection: Hopes & Dreams Conference 2026

Hopes & Dreams Conference   Partnerships Spark Possibilities R2i2 Conference Center  March 25, 2026 Hopes & Dreams brings families, professionals, and community partners together to learn, connect, and imagine what is possible for children and youth with disabilities in South Carolina.  This year’s conference celebrates one powerful idea: when we work together, possibilities grow! Visit our conference page for details about the day's agenda!

Register Now !

More ways to Invest in Families and Amplify Your Impact! Sponsorship of Hopes & Dreams not only helps make this conference possible, it also supports statewide training and advocacy for children with disabilities. Join us as an exhibitor and showcase your services, products, or programs to families and professionals from across the state!

Sponsorship Opportunities

Reserve Exhibitor Space

More updates from Family Connection!

	Training Spotlight! Family Connection has a library of our video trainings covering a variety of topics. With IEP meetings a trending topic, we are sharing a training presented by Dr. Susan Thomas, retired Special Education Director. Click the arrow to watch. View more videos on our YouTube page!

Summer State of Mind Winter is definitely here but if you are thinking about summer camp options for your child, visit our Summer Camp Page! Summer officially starts June 21st!😎

Did you know? 🤔 The number of families seeking our services has more than doubled over the past five years?                                                                              2020                        2025 Number of families requesting 1:1 assistance:        3,046                             6,864 Top Reasons Families Reach out for Help Help Navigating Healthcare Support for School Challenges Connecting to Community Resources Mental Health Needs Emotional Support and Understanding

Give Today and Help Build A Brighter Future for Children!

Have questions or need assistance? Call our Support and Information Line: 1-800-578-8750

Thank you to our Hopes & Dreams 2026 Sponsors!

New Mobility. Newsletter: Turning Big Goals Into Small Wins

    

NEW MOBILITY HEALTH & WELLNESS January 2026 - View in browser IN PARTNERSHIP WITH KALOGON — SEATING THAT WORKS AS HARD AS YOU DO —

THIS MONTH: TURNING BIG GOALS INTO SMALL WINS C5-6 quad Eddie Crouch has figured out how do all of the things he needs to live independently — including transferring and pulling his manual wheelchair into his car — by breaking big challenges into manageable pieces.  I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. I think it’s because coming from an athlete’s background, I have an implicit understanding that big goals don’t mean much of anything without focusing on the little changes that’ll help you get there. I’ve played wheelchair rugby for the past 20 years, including 10 at an international level. When I was playing at a high level — as opposed to the “used to be good but now has a job and two kids” status I currently enjoy — the big goals like making a national team, winning a national championship, or winning a Paralympic gold, never occupied much mental real estate. Don’t get me wrong, they were in the back of my head, serving as fodder when I needed motivation. But my day-to-day focus was on the small improvements that would allow me to play at a higher level. Say I wanted to get faster. Was it more important to have a higher top-end speed or better quickness? I should prioritize quickness. How do I get quicker? Increase my muscular power. How? By periodizing my lifting — muscle building first, then strength, then explosive power. But lifting heavy makes me slow — could I handle getting slower for a part of the season to increase my quickness by the end? Sure, as long as I planned my year around which months I needed to be fast. If I lift more explosively, how should my nutrition change to recover properly? Eat more than I want to. But meat is expensive and my wife is a vegetarian — how do I get enough protein to build muscle? Buy annoyingly large quantities of eggs, peanut butter and cheap whey protein. Every big goal contains many smaller goals, and countless variables that have to be addressed, tweaked or abandoned based on the circumstances at hand. It’s why athletes and coaches always talk about process over outcome. Think of your big goals as outcomes, and the small lifestyle tweaks as processes. Outcomes you can’t control. Processes you can. SPONSORED CONTENT Does your seating system really support you? Medicare-coded Orbiter Med is a fully custom wheelchair cushion powered by Kalogon’s Advanced Pressure Management System (APMS). Built to your measurements and needs, it dynamically supports posture and skin integrity while helping maintain blood flow through independent offloads. Choose a seating solution designed to adapt with you. Call 321.465.4504 to try now. BREAKING YOUR GOAL TO PIECES Of course, most of you reading this newsletter probably aren’t dreaming of Paralympic gold. Or maybe you are, in which case, great. Go get it. But that same process mindset is effective, whether you want to lose weight, increase your independence, spend more time with your family, start a new career or make any other major lifestyle change.  Employing a process mindset means continually breaking your big goals into smaller, more concrete pieces that are easier to tackle, and then putting your energy toward those challenges one at a time. Let’s take an example and work through it. You want to lose 50lbs. Ok, that’s an outcome you may or may not reach, but, as we talked about in last year’s weight loss newsletter, do you really want to lose 50lbs? Or, do you want to look better, feel better and be more functional in your everyday life? Those are goals you can work toward. What do you need to know and do to start addressing those goals? Well, to “look better,” you probably need to decrease body fat and increase muscle. How do I do that? Move your muscles consistently and with escalating intensity, and eat fewer calories. Pick one and start there. Exercise sounds more fun, but I only have like four muscles that work. Work those. Find some wrist weights and do shoulder shrugs and bicep curls. Start with a couple days a week and get in a routine. But now my traps are sore, and my quad belly isn’t going anywhere. OK, but how are your biceps looking? They’ve grown from mandarins into slightly larger mandarins! Great, you must be getting stronger, now, let’s take a look at that diet.   THE POWER OF MARGINAL GAINS   The nice thing about breaking a big goal into smaller ones is that tracking whether you’re making any progress and adjusting accordingly is a lot easier. Start stacking small wins together and that’s where change happens. In 2019, I wrote about one of my friends, a guy named Eddie Crouch. Eddie is a C5-6 complete quad who lives independently. He’s figured out how to do car transfers, showers, his bowel routine and even tie his shoes with two quad fists. As I wrote about his abilities: All of [Crouch’s] daily tasks took a great deal of patience to master. Just putting his pants on, let alone socks, shoes and everything else, would take 30 minutes when he first got out of rehab. Figuring out how to transfer onto the toilet took him 10 years — a decade of having to do a bowel routine on his side in bed when he traveled. He was finally able to master that transfer when he got D’s Locks on his everyday chair, and he didn’t have to worry about hitting a brake lever with his leg or a wheel moving slightly while he transferred. As much as anything else, what makes Crouch unique is his ability to work through problems over and over again, stacking marginal gains atop each other, without getting so frustrated that he says, screw it, not worth the effort.   Whether or not you like New Year’s resolutions, everyone has life goals they want to accomplish. If you want to get serious about making them happen, break your goals into the smallest pieces you can think of. Start finding solutions, one by one, and now you're on the path to something big. SPONSORED CONTENT Expanded ABLE Eligibility Is Here People whose disability began before age 46 may now qualify to open a tax-advantaged ABLEnow account.

New Mobility publishes member content for United Spinal Association, whose mission is to improve quality of life of people with spinal cord injuries and all wheelchair users. It's free to join United Spinal. Join here.

Copyright © 2026 United Spinal Association. All rights reserved.

Detailed Orientation and Mobility for Tiny Travelers Webinar, Noon

 

Please join us for today's webinar: Detailed Orientation and Mobility for Tiny Travelers   REGISTER TO ATTEND

Date & Time:  Jan 29, 2026 12:00 PM  in  Eastern Time

Target Audience: Families of infants and toddlers who are blind or low vision 

Description: Participants will learn: 

1. Developmental milestones relevant to travel skills 
2. The role of sensory development, play, and exploration in early mobility 
3. How to incorporate routines and natural environments into skill-building Speaker Name: Tyler Trichilo 

Speaker Biography: Tyler has been a Certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI) for six years and serving his second year as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of Pittsburgh. Tyler is a full-time service provider for school-age children and adults with vision loss in Myrtle Beach and surrounding areas. In his free time, Tyler enjoys surfing, practicing jiu-jitsu, and playing the guitar.

New Publication from AAIDD Books: Critical Issues in Health

 

View all AAIDD publications by visiting the AAIDD Bookstore

Register for the 2026 Walk, Run & Roll Event for Brain Injury Awareness.

 

Sunday, March 22, 2026 Three events, one mission: to create a better future through brain injury prevention, research, education, and advocacy. Sign up for your local event today! Upstate Become a member today and get $10 off your registration! March is Brain Injury Awareness Month! There’s no better time to rally for brain injury survivors and their families! This year, we're celebrating statewide with events in three locations, including Charleston, Columbia, and Upstate, SC! Each event will feature a group Walk, Run & Roll followed by a reception including food, music, kids' activities, and fun! Sign up to participate and/or donate to the event nearest you.  Want to do more? Create or join a fundraising team!  While signing up, you'll have the option to fundraise solo or amplify your impact by creating or joining a fundraising team. Our fundraising platform makes it easy and fun! Questions? Contact michael@biaofsc.com. Columbia Event Highlight: DJ Preach Jacobs  A celebrated writer, hip-hop artist, and cultural ambassador, Preach will bring his signature energy to the Walk, Run & Roll Reception at Bierkeller Columbia.  Music • Games • Food • Family Fun Thanks to our Platinum Sponsors!