(Please excuse sudden changes of text, occasional dead links, and conflicts
                                      of style. We are still under construction)

FamilyLight^sm is developing right here the indispensible online guide to services families with young people who face extra challenges.  We intend to hold a very high standard of accountability while being fair.  We know of no other Internet resource doing that.  Others (including some of very great benefit and high integrity) are  extremely cautious about challenging schools and programs to do better and describing real distinctions between programs. Some others are either concealed marketing devices promoting a specific provider while posing as a neutral referral source. Still others are simply propaganda machines for shutting down the entire care giving profession or industry.

FamilyLight^sm will link to other web resources, allow critique of our work on our website, promote debate and discussion in good taste, and decline all advertising.  At some point we will charge a nominal fee for access to some areas of this website, but as we bring this up to speed, it will be a free resource. 

(Continued below box)

Our purpose is to create a resource that will accomplish three major goals:

Provide a guide to resources that will reliably assist families in locating schools and treatment resources through web searches. At no time will we recommend specific facilities for specific families, but we will attempt to provide resources so that the task of doing an on-line search will not be quite so daunting.

     1. Provide a mutual support service for families in crisis.

     2. Provide in-depth assistance to professionals assisting clients, such as mental health professionals and other consultants.

     3. Provide consumers with an opportunity to "Sample" the work of FamilyLight^sm and contributing consultants before engaging services. We acknowledge a promotional agenda to that extent. 

Toward those goals, this section will contain:

     1.  A directory of services. This will begin with schools and residential treatment services generally utilized by educational consultants. It will expand to listings of resources as comprehensively as possible. When this is initially posted, it will be a simple list. We hope to upgrade it gradually to a searchable database. We are uncertain, but currently anticipate three versions in the future:

       a.  A Microsoft Excel version, so that anyone with this widely available software can  have a downloadable edition they can personalize for their own use.  We hope to have a procedure for those who have personalized their version of the Excel data base, so that users can download updates without disturbing personalized information. A  preliminary draft version is currently available. This is currently with out charge, and we expect to  continue that.

      b. A Microsoft Access version, which will have maximum search capabilities, and the ability to further personalize.  There will be programming to support personalization and to allow updates from FamilyLight^sm that do not disturb personalization. There may be a fee for this.

      c. An online version requiring no special software. This will likely have a fee attached. We hope to devise a method of personalization.

 When we speak of Personalization,  we mean to allow the end-user to add comments and expanded information that will be their own property and not visible to others on the web.

     2. Articles, commentary, references to books and websites of interest.

     3.  A section that will include the above items that will be organized to guide parents step by step through web searches for resources, in fulfillment of goal 1 above. When in good order, this section will be accessed by fee, but while under development will be free of charge.  You can currently access the beginnings of this at no charge.

     4. Parents Supporting Parents – a moderated forum of parents reaching out to each other. We hope this will not just be about families in crisis, but parents doing their best to help each other improve quality of life for all children, teens, young adults, and their families. This will grow into our virtual support community. See next item.

     5. A virtual support community. This is a major project that is more long range. A step beyond a moderated forum, this will be a virtual community of people sharing their strength and hope in improving quality of life for all families. People participating in this will be carefully screened and will operate at a level of trust and mutual interaction that exceeds typical chat room and online discussions.

    6. A section of primary interest to professionals, accessible by fee.  

    7. Our "Links" section will be moved here.  Every link will appear somewhere else on the website in text where there is material that might prompt a move to the link at issue. In addition, all links will show here.

Last updated July 21, 2008