Throughout our yearly meeting, individual Friends and Monthly and Quarterly Meetings are diligently working to make our communities more accessible for any and all who are impacted by disability. We are overjoyed to share that the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will be offering two different support groups: a Disability Support Group for Friends with disabilities and a Caregiver Support Group for Friends who are caregivers of those with disabilities. These support groups are open to members and attenders of PYM who self-identify as having and/or supporting individuals with any kind of disability, physical or mental, visible or invisible.
The Disability Support Group will be co-facilitated by Nancy Williams (Harrisburg Monthly Meeting) and Susan Elliott (Chester Monthly Meeting). Susan is a Pastoral/Spiritual caregiver and has had a disability for most of her life. The Disability Support Group will be a spiritually grounded space that will allow Friends to share more about their experiences, from sharing difficulties and/or successes with navigating systems to access services to sharing how disabilities have impacted their lives and how they handle and process those moments. Through this support group, Friends will develop a support system and build connections with each other while talking through their personal stories and ways of coping. Furthermore, Friends will be able to share resources, both within the yearly meeting and outside of it, among each other.
The Caregiver Support Group will be facilitated by Janaki Spickard Keeler (Friends Counseling Service Coordinator, Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting) and Kristin Simmons (PYM Youth Engagement Coordinator, Old Haverford Monthly Meeting). Janaki is the Coordinator for the Friends Counseling Service, a service that offers psychological support to PYM members, their families, regular attenders, and staff. Along with serving the yearly meeting, Kristin works as a social worker, supporting autistic children. Caregivers will find that the support group will offer a safe, confidential environment where they will receive empathetic emotional support as well as caregiving strategies from the group and its facilitators. Along with learning more about care management in the home, community, and Meeting, and additional information about yearly meeting grants, caregivers will be able to connect with others with similar caregiving experiences and make meaningful relationships.
The support groups will begin in January 2025, and will meet once a month over Zoom for six months. Each support group will be capped at twelve participants, and participants must be ages 18+ and a member or regular attender of a PYM meeting to register.
The support groups are set to begin in January 2025. Registration is rolling, and you are encouraged to register as soon as you can. Registration form is below.
Please register today!
Have any questions? Reach out our Inclusion and Belonging Coordinator Inaara Shiraz, ishiraz@pym.org, or call (215) 241-7213.
