We are family members and/or care-givers of children and adults who have physical or intellectual handicaps due to birth defects, injury, or aging. Our members include:

• Parents, guardians, siblings, extended family members, and advocates of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities
• Family members who are faced with placing an aging adult into a long time care facility, such as assisted living or nursing facility.
• Teachers and providers of services to the persons with special needs.
• Anyone who is interested in the issues that face any of the above, including professional care givers, members of government agencies, non-profit organizations and members of the general population who are interested in these issues.

The purpose of this ministry is to provide spiritual and emotional support to the families of intellectually and developmentally disabled children and adults. Participants are encouraged to share their own personal experiences and what they have learned from those experiences. We share Information on current bills being considered by state and national legislatures that will impact our loved one and our families. We also share information and experiences in working with state agencies, residential companies, schools, churches, and the medical community. Our participants are encouraged to become mentors (sharing how to “navigate the system”) since they first began seeking assistance for their loved one.

Although not part of the primary target groups, persons with special needs and their families we welcome other interested parties, such as extended families, neighbors, and representatives of agencies that serve the special needs community. Hopefully these “friends” of the special needs community will gain much needed insight into the concerns of these families and take what they learn back to their own families or agencies. This will, hopefully, result in improved and more appropriate services from agencies and better understanding between the special needs community and the community at large.

We have three main groups:

• Parents and caregivers of persons with intellectual and/or physical disabilities.
• Siblings of persons with intellectual and/or physical disabilities.
• Adult children who are faced with caring for an aging adult in their own home, their loved one’s home, or placing their loved one in a care facility.

At this time all groups will meet quarterly in a combined meeting where we will have a speaker or panel discussion of an issue of mutual interest that has been chosen by the group at large. We will also have separate “break-out” meetings of the three main groups. The frequency of the meetings and the topics of those meetings are decided by the individual groups.

We hope in the future to be able to provide the following activities for those participants who are interested:

• Outings such as trips to Indianapolis Zoo or Children’s Museum, attend an Indians game, etc. The outings can be for families or just for siblings and their IDD siblings
• Fairs where related associations (such as ARC, Alzheimer’s, etc.) can set up booths to provide information about their association or government agency.
• Thanksgiving dinner for the families and their loved one. It will be a celebration of blessings that they have received as the parents, siblings, children of these “special” people in their lives.

Immanuel is a biblical name meaning “a child whose birth symbolizes the presence of God, or ‘God is with us’”.
All persons are the children of God, and God is in our loved ones, and through them, He is with us.