The Family Cafe is pleased to announce the publication of The 2011 Family Cafe Questions & Answers Book. This publication is a direct result of engagement by attendees at The 13th Annual Family Cafe last June. Through The Family Cafe's "Pink Card" process, attendees were given the opportunity to submit questions and comments. The Family Cafe distributed them to the relevant state agencies and offices, and the end product is The 2011 Family Cafe Questions & Answers Book. It includes information from the Governor's Office, the Agency for Healthcare Administration, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Department of Children and Families, Department of Education, Department of Health, Division of Emergency Management, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and, of course, from The Family Cafe too.

We really hope you find this new publication to be useful for you and your family. Please take a few minutes to check it out all of the great stuff it has to offer. And thanks to all of the attendees of The 13th Annual Family Cafe for their many questions and comments. Your voices truly matter!

The Florida Youth Council invites you to read their special Holiday Edition of The Noodle. In this edition FYC member write about their own holiday traditions, the family members that only see during the this time of years and they recall the best Christmas presents they have ever received.

At this busy time of the year, the FYC hope you will take a few minutes out of your day to read their articles.

You can access their holiday edition of the Noodle Here

Nothing else brings together as much information or connects as many families of people with disabilties as The Annual Family Café does. With over 160 breakout sessions, timely, informative keynotes, opportunities to engage policy makers at the Annual Summit on Disabilities and an Exhibit Hall with more than 100 public and private vendors, The Annual Family gives families a remarkable collection of resources that can make a real difference in their daily lives.

In a perfect world, we would have all the resources we need to help families attend our event and see all that we have to offer. But the truth is, we always have more demand for assistance than we can possibly meet. That's why, In this season of giving, we are asking our friends and supporters to help us bring families to The 14th Annual Family Cafe next June 15-17 by contributing to The Annual Family Café Scholarship Fund. 

The Family Café brings people together and connects them with essential resources, as well as a sense of community. As one attendee put it, “This conference is so valuable.  It has changed our lives and has helped our family in so many ways.  Our son will be graduating with honors next year.  We can [attribute] his success to the skills we have learned at The Family Café.”

We are committed to sharing our resources with as many families as possible, and growing our family statewide. Won't you please help? No donation is too small, and every dollar helps us to bring families to the event. Remember, The Family Café is a 501c3 non-profit, so your contribution is tax deductible!

If you think other Florida families would get as much out of The Annual Family Café as your family did, then please support our efforts to bring families to the event by contributing to The Annual Family Café Scholarship Fund today!

The Family Cafe is now on Twitter!

Twitter is a great way to get frequent updates with news and information on disability issues, policy developments in Tallahassee and upcoming Family Cafe events. If you have a Twitter account, please start following us at @TheFamilyCafe today!

To learn more about Twitter and how it works, and to create an account, visit Twitter.com.