How Can We Help Kids With Special Needs Succeed? | ep. 109

Join Myneedsnetwork.org

Check out the research that fueled this project in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods:

Fafard, M., Lukens-Bull, K., Pinard, M., & Bautista, M. (2025). My Needs Network: How a Community-Based Participatory Research Process Morphed Into a Sustainable Community-Driven Networking Platform. Journal of Participatory Research Methods, 6(2), 1–27

TD Flenaugh interviews Mark Fafard about the challenges of supporting children with special needs and disabilities, emphasizing the importance of connecting them with necessary resources. Mark Fafard introduces the My Needs Network, a nationwide tool designed to help the disabled community access resources. The network, which started in Florida and is expanding, offers a free, easy-to-use platform for parents and organizations to connect and share information. Mark highlights the network's non-competitive approach, aiming to support existing organizations and promote their success. The network has around 30,000 users.

Chapters

• 2:12 Mark discusses his love for learning
• 5:28 Mark discusses the origin of My Needs Network
• 8:35 Mark explains My Needs Network
• 14:50 Description of My Needs Network website - myneedsnetwork.org
• 14:51 Published a research on the need for My Needs Network

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:04

Special needs and disabilities, and many of our children are facing disabilities and special needs, and we don't always know how to put them on the right track, how to make sure they have all the resources they need as they're growing older, as they're shifting needs in their different phases of childhood and even into adulthood. This episode gives us a resource to really help connect us and our families with special needs and children with disabilities to resources they need so they're on track for learning and stay on track for success. Hi. Thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning Podcast. I am TD Flenaugh. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. Welcome Mark, favorite, so how are you doing, Mark?

Mark Fafard: 1:16

I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing? Great. So I really want, I'm glad that you came on our show to talk about your My Needs Network. It's summer months. How is the summer treating you? What do you have going on? It's good. We've had, there's been a couple of good conferences this this summer. There's a couple more coming up. A lot of things happen this summer. It's been really good. We've got, we have some builds that we're doing in the in the My needs network platform, and moving some projects forward as well.

TD Flenaugh: 1:51

Okay, so we're going to get into the my needs network that you're going to tell us all about, and the resources and the network that you're creating and but before we get into that, we always like to ask our guests, like, what made you fall in love with learning, what really sparked your passion for learning when you're a child or youth?

Mark Fafard: 2:13

I would say it was a couple of things. Maybe traveling a little bit overseas did it? And that encouraged me to Yeah. And that was shortly after I got out of the Navy, I was spent some time overseas for a while, just kind of traveling around on my own and also, and then once I got into college, that was where it really kind of took off for me. I admired my professors. I admired the coursework and and the different materials that we were, you know, we had to read and review, and so that was probably what launched me into where I am now. Wow,

TD Flenaugh: 2:55

so Well, thank you for your service. And so you're saying you didn't, it wasn't really, you didn't really get into learning or school until you got older, and the traveling was really so that that's something that is interesting, like some people get into it early learning, but you're, you know, you kept doing what you're supposed to do, you Know, to and got into the you said, navy. Sorry I missed

Mark Fafard: 3:23

it. Yeah, the Navy and my parents, my parents encouraged me as well to, you know, over the years, to growing up, and that was all that was very helpful also, but, but really getting into the field that I'm in now, it took, it was probably more in college, where that, where it kind of drove me into this direction.

Unknown: 3:42

Nice. So tell us about your field, like your education background, and how you got into doing the my needs network, which you're going to tell us all about coming soon.

Mark Fafard: 3:54

So I Yeah, sure. So I have a, I have a background in in research, predominantly in the social sciences, you could say, but mostly in the pub, in in health care, so for in and so I was working as a research manager in 2016 and I was working for an a clinic that focuses on medical complexities for pediatrics. And it was there that we just continued to come across the need for improvement, to access accessing resources within this within this medical complexity sub population, okay? And we would hear it over and over again, we're here to conferences. We would see this results come through on on a grant that we were working under as well. And so from there, we took it, we myself and our principal investigator, we and a few other folks. On our team, we built out a independent research study, you know, through the university, and from there, we were able to learn a lot more about those needs, categorize them, identify theme, reoccurring themes, with with those needs, and really do something with that, with the research findings and kind of validate, if you will, what we had been hearing over the years.

TD Flenaugh: 5:29

Can you tell us more about the medical complexity? So yes, I don't. Can you tell us a little bit more for the viewers and myself? Sure,

Mark Fafard: 5:38

the other way you could put it would just be, end of it. It was a pediatric office. So it was a pediatric clinic, I should say, and it was a variety of individuals with disabilities or and different variety of severity types of disabilities. And so the overall question was, what is it that these parents and families need clinical, non clinical, to improve their quality of life. So that was our starting point. That was a starting point. The research that kind of got us, got my needs network going unexpectedly, and we also, but today we also cover adults, pediatrics and adults.

TD Flenaugh: 6:22

Okay, so tell us. L about the my needs network. How you know what it is? And then, how do you know? How does it benefit the greater community?

Mark Fafard: 6:34

Sure. So my needs network is a networking service provider designed specific for the disabled community. It is set to be a nationwide tool. We have gotten we we got started in Florida, and so, of course, you know to and we are in the we are in the process of building out into other states. So as of right now, a lot of the resources are are in Florida. But that doesn't matter. I mean, if you're out of if you're if you're out out of state, or if you're in another state, we still strongly encourage you to, you know, to use my needs network. Connect with us on, you know, through my needs network, we can still help in, way in to help identify and find resources. But so it's a nationwide networking service provider. And we it was founded unexpectedly from the research study, which is which we've now published on. And it was a two year study looking at how to improve quality of life for individuals with disabilities. And so we, with all that information that we had after the two years, we decided to take it more of an entrepreneur route and try to build something tangible that parents and families could use right away and and have it reflect the findings in the research, which was for Parents and families to have a free, easy to use tool that helps them connect with other parents, helps them connect with other resource providers and find resources specific for people with disabilities. So it's a network, and it's been building out, and it's building out a network, and so it goes beyond a database, or it goes beyond services within a nonprofit, or anything of that sort. It's, it's, it's much bigger than that. So

Unknown: 8:35

Right? So bringing people together, resources together with the people who need it. So if I give you a scenario, I if I have a child with disability who is now 24 and she's looking for a job, how would I use the my needs network?

Mark Fafard: 8:58

So there's a few different ways. So the one is, you would, you would go into my needs network, my needs network.org, create an account. It takes about one minute, one to two minutes as an individual, if you're a social worker, and maybe a few more minutes, just because we can help promote your your business and and we want your business to succeed as a social worker or social working service, so you create that and then you create your listing, and then or your account, and then you're able to access multiple tools to help you connect with with that exact need. So you would literally take what you just said your description, and you could copy paste that into different tools and get that out to multiple organizations all over the country. It depending on the, you know, on the category of need, you can also, and then there's also, you could also see what the resources we have. In, in, in our database, which, again, the database is a fraction of what we do. It's a, it's a important fraction, but it's a, it's a fraction that that's not what we're defined as is, you know, we're not, it's, it's a tiny piece. But then the other piece would be that you can all if you're having trouble, you know, you know, because time is of the essence. Time is, you know, individuals with family members with disabilities, we understand that time is limited. And so it could be the start could be as simple as an email to our team, and then we take it and start looking from there. And we work with the families. Until we've we have some resources to kind of hand off to them.

TD Flenaugh: 10:46

Wonderful, okay? And the, again, that is a range of disabilities, physical disability, or, like, learning disability, or or other kind of, yeah, okay, correct?

Mark Fafard: 11:00

And anywhere in the anywhere in the country, it doesn't really matter, rural, urban, just it doesn't

TD Flenaugh: 11:04

matter. And so I could just call, I mean, email and get a call, or you guys will work with me and my daughter, in this case, to get res, you know, to connect her to resources to finding a job or interviewing or something like that, and or I could just go in create my own, like profile for my daughter, and then she and I could work together, you know, through the platform to to reach out to different resources. So there'll be different people in the network that will Yeah, different companies or or whatever that I could like, sign up with per se, and then they would be reaching back out to me. Is that correct? The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook or your go to resource for helping kids to learn to fall in love with writing. It has the tips, tools, resources, strategies and skill building activities to help kids fall out of writing Hoot and into loving to write, get Your book set today.

Mark Fafard: 12:41

Yeah, you'd be able to connect with them. And then we could be doing and over, and it could be a combination of the of both, idea that would be a great way to do it, too.

TD Flenaugh: 12:50

Okay, all right. And so,

Mark Fafard: 12:54

so for So, for example, a lot of times, you know, over the years, we've heard things like, oh, this organization or or this Facebook group does the same kind of thing, and you know, they that you're doing, and we, and we typically say, well, great, if that's the case, if that's what they're doing, is helping people connect with resources, then we need to add them on to my needs network. We don't see them as a competitor. We want to promote them because they're, they're working well, it's, it's, you know, if it's a, if it's a company that's been that's been doing that, and people are happy with that service, then we want to promote that service. So that's, that's so we're not, we're we don't see ourselves as a competitor with a a very successful parent Facebook group or a very successful national nonprofit or local nonprofit, or a local business or national business, we want to put we want to promote those businesses. If that's working well, we want them to continue. We want them to work even better.

TD Flenaugh: 13:56

Okay, alright, so that's an important distinction. It's a network, and you're not in competition with others. You're just really trying to connect resources to the people families that need it, make sure that those organizations that offer services are known, and have you know access to people who need those sources resources as well.

Mark Fafard: 14:20

Right? Right? And then exactly. And then we do, we do. There's a whole, a whole other level of of support we provide for those organizations, because, again, we want them to be successful because they know that. They know the details of the category of area that they focus on. And we want those organizations to be successful as well. So my needs network is there to support them,

TD Flenaugh: 14:43

okay? So for our audience, you can go to which. What is the website?

Mark Fafard: 14:50

Myneedsnetwork.org,

TD Flenaugh: 14:52

so my needs network.org, and it, if you are a parent, you could register your child. Information in there, right? And

Mark Fafard: 15:03

yes, and you don't even need, there's not even much information you have to register. You just just put in an email. All we need is an email address so you can receive updates. And so we have a way to contact you outside of the network.

TD Flenaugh: 15:18

And if you have an organization, you also want to register on there as well.

Mark Fafard: 15:23

Yes, yeah, and it's to the organization's best interest that you put a little bit more information in so you can receive referrals, leads, promote yourself. It's kind of a free it's some multiple marketing tools for organizations big and small.

TD Flenaugh: 15:38

Great. Okay, so about how many people do you have working, you know, in your network right now? People like clients, per se, and then like organizations.

Mark Fafard: 15:51

We in our we have, we have around I have. I didn't look at the numbers over these last I haven't looked at the numbers over the last week or two, but I want to say we have about 30 to 40,000 visitors over the last two months, and we have Our database has about 15,000 organization resources in the you. In the in database and so, and then we work with several partners on a regular basis. We were co owned by University of Florida, and we and we keep, and, like I said, we keep everything free and easy to use. So there's no there's, it's not like you hit a wall and now you have to pay a subscription fee or to access it's it's not set up that way. Our business model is completely separate.

TD Flenaugh: 16:51

So you're mentioning that your research about what you know that that actually led to creating the my needs network. There's like a peer reviewed publication or something like that, that we can read as well.

Mark Fafard: 17:10

Yes, yeah, absolutely. So. So the the research itself was done between 2016 and 2018 and then we switched in 2018 we switched into ways to to build and design the something that reflected the needs that came out of the the needs and requirements that came out of the research findings. So for example, how are we going to build this and make sure it's free? How are we going to make sure it's easy to use? What types of tools need to be added in into this to to be appealing to parents, to where they can easily connect or and organizations. So. So from 2018 we we switched into kind of building, designing, validating and and testing, and then in 2024 that's why our numbers are. You know around that the 30,000 users, that's why we're, I wouldn't say it's on the lower end, but for our standards, we are because we need to be nationwide. We want to be looking at millions, but, but we've really only started hitting our marketing campaign since this past January. Okay, alright, so we're really kind of fresh out of the gate, because we've been building since 2018 so when we published the publication, it's a it's a pretty good sauce publication, but the publication covers it's the way we used our methodology. It's called community based participatory research, and we use that in during the research phase. And what that means is we engage the community in the research component, in driving the research itself, not just collecting information from the from the community. So, and that's a kind of a brief explanation of it, but, but we also continue to use community based, participatory research methodology after the research in our builds, in our implementing, our validating and and designs and even marketing. So. So it was it we recently published. The publication came out earlier this year, and it covers the past. Really covers the history of mine, ease network from 2016

TD Flenaugh: 19:41

Okay, and so what's the name of the publication? Again,

Mark Fafard: 19:47

it's a long title. I will send you the link.

Unknown: 19:50

Okay, it will be in the show notes. Okay, yeah, alright, um, what kind of advice would you give to parents of. Uh, who just really feel that their, you know, their school, their they just really haven't found the right resources they need to help their kids go to whatever that next level is, like, the right middle school, or maybe it's the right after high school learning program. What? What advice would you give them?

Mark Fafard: 20:25

So I guess a couple of things when it comes to my needs network, if you is to use it, it's, it's what you make of it with my needs network. My needs network is kind of like an empty house that was built for you. It's, it's built for you. It's just time for you to move in, move your furniture in, and start living out of it. Start using it. The more you use it, the more functional it'll be. And using it also includes the one on one, support the tools and and getting in there. It doesn't take a long time to use it. It just takes it just takes up email login and to get in there and start utilizing the other piece outside of my needs network. And I've kind of seen this over the years. I feel is, is talk to the other parents, the parent advocates. You see those a lot out of children's hospitals, social workers, those, they are, those, those groups of support, levels of support, are very, very valuable. And they, they know all kind. They're on top of all the resources out there. The new policy updates, they they stay up to date on quite a bit the parent advocates are great, because then they can connect pretty easily. And they kind of they understand where the parent in need is coming from. They can relate very easily.

TD Flenaugh: 21:55

Okay, that's wonderful. I want to circle back because you said something about the one on one support. Can you tell us more about that?

Mark Fafard: 22:03

Sure, so, if so, going back to your example, I think it was your daughter as an adult now, was looking for employment with a mental behavioral disability. Was it something along

TD Flenaugh: 22:16

those? Yes, no scenario, yeah.

Mark Fafard: 22:19

Okay, so, so if you were, if you were looking for something along those lines, and you could always send us an email, tell us just exactly that and where you're looking for those resources, like your zip, the zip, zip code, or your that general area, and we would be able to help provide that help as well. So we it's easier for us to operate by email, because then we can, we can move that, that sentence around without having to change it, without getting the the sentence getting or the the need getting shifted around

TD Flenaugh: 22:54

I see what you're saying. Because if I'm telling you, then just it's you may have heard it wrong, or you may have missed something. And if I email you, you could see all of the things that I put I'm not it's nothing's left out and making sure you really don't miss anything. Yeah, okay, exactly. Yes, exactly. Okay, so the one on one support, yeah, once you email they can contact you and help you really find what you need. Yeah, and I really like that is such a gem, reaching out to those parent advocates at the Children's Hospital in different places so that you are, you know, finding multiple ways to reach to get the needs that you need for your child.

Mark Fafard: 23:44

And one of the, and speaking of parent advocates, one of the things that we're working on, it's, it's, it's kind of, it's coming up on the pipeline. It's coming It's, it's very it's, it's about this we're about to start building on this now is creating a place in money's network where it's easier for people to connect with those family advocates all over the all over the country, and also a place in my needs network where family advocates can better benefit and social workers can can benefit in their jobs. So, you know, what is it that they need to do their jobs better? So we're there to kind of support those family advocates again, so we can help them, the more successful they are, the more they're able to provide for those in those parents and families in direct need, absolutely we've been able to find some discounted contract work for them and also help set them up in directions to where they can find some financing or some funding.

TD Flenaugh: 24:56

Okay, well, we really appreciate. You coming on to our show, our audience members, we thank you for watching us and following us, and we're in our season three. Make sure that you're doing something today that gives your child the competitive advantage. Thank you so much for joining us. Mark,

Mark Fafard: 25:16

thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks again

TD Flenaugh: 25:18

for supporting the following, for learning podcast, new episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com, at falling for learning, or listen on all major podcast platforms, such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit, falling in love with learning.com we really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week. You.