On September 2nd from 4 PM to 7 PM, FCSN’s South Bay center was bursting with music, laughter, warmth, energy, and creativity as FCSN members gathered for the bi-weekly family gathering. Between 4 to 6 PM, youth volunteers guided special needs children and teens through different activities. There were stations for dance and drawing, and the center also hosted a social skills session. Groups rotated after 20 minutes at each station. While the special needs students were busy with the fun activities, in a separate room of the center, speakers CK Lee and Jason Hwan covered FCSN updates and goals for the 2023–2024 year at the parent seminar. Parent seminars go over a variety of topics from self-improvement ideas to FCSN organization updates. At 6 PM, attendees enjoyed a dinner of grilled chicken and vermicelli and cabbage salad over rice, prepared by parent volunteers. 

Created in 1996 when activities and support groups for special needs families were sparse, FCSN family gatherings aimed to provide a welcoming environment for families to socialize and build a close-knit community with one another. In this supportive space, parents can connect, learn from each other, and exchange resources while their children have fun with different activities. Longtime attendees can testify to the warm environment that these family gatherings created; parent Lucy Qiao says that she has “lost count of how many times we have been going to the family gathering” and that since 2019, “we have been going unless we are out of town for vacation.”

The family gathering program is offered every semester; the current one runs on Saturdays from September 2nd to December 9th at both the South and East Bay centers. 

Both gathering organizers and volunteers have had their own share of success and challenges. South Bay coordinator John Qian noted that the gatherings had seen a lack of volunteers so far. “We have some key volunteers who did excellent work,” he said, but he still wished to see more people attending and helping out.

Most youth volunteers who did attend felt that the gatherings were a success. Karen Gong volunteered as a dance lead for the event out of her passion for dance. Teaching was a new experience for her. During preparation, though, she had hesitations about how to maintain the participants’ focus. “One of my biggest concerns was whether or not I would be able to consistently keep the students engaged for each class,” she said. “[Methods to prevent drifting attention] included teaching the basic moves of each dance first so everyone is less likely to feel lost during the songs, constantly giving verbal encouragement and guidance, and most importantly making sure that I myself was enthusiastic and dancing along for every song.”

For the FCSN community, the Family Support Gatherings are a way for special needs families to connect face to face. With the slow return after the pandemic, these gatherings have been especially important in uniting FCSN families, to educate and share important resources, and most importantly, to provide that precious time and space to reconnect with a friend, form a new connection, and forge that foundation for a family and community. In the future, FCSN plans to continue growing the program, and hopefully, more and more families and volunteers will join, with everyone working together to build a community for special needs children and adults.