“As soon as our organization was just established in late 1996, we started working on the FCSN printed newsletter, and we published the first issue in January 1997,” FCSN Co-Chairperson and FCSN Voices Advisor Jim Chiao said. “The newsletter reported announcements, organizational updates, and articles from parents and volunteers, it helped bring our organization together and grow. Today, 24 years later, I see FCSN Voices as a huge extension of FCSN newsletter, with all the power that comes with the digital platform.”
FCSN Voices was formerly known as FCSN Blog. The blog started about 5-6 years ago with the publication of personal stories of our clients in the Adult Day Programs and Living Programs. About three years ago, Jim took over the blog in order to broaden its scope and reported on the latest news/events from all sectors within FCSN. In September of 2020, our Volunteer Director Linmei Chiao received an email from a youth volunteer Ryan, saying that he could help to make the blog a lot better with more personal and detailed blogs – Jim was very receptive to the idea and that’s how Jim and Ryan first got connected. Two weeks later, our tutoring coordinator of SNTutoring Isabella heard of the news and joined the team. Just around the same time, Jim was talking to Wei-Jen about recruiting youth volunteers for the FCSN printed newsletter, and found out that Helen, an editor, was also interested in bringing our newsletter online. It was amazing the speed that we put this team together; within weeks, we had a good working team. Soon, we were publishing at least one article each week. Now, after many weeks of publishing and discussion, we decided to change the name of the publication and FCSN Voices was born.
The name FCSN Voices was chosen to allow the voices of the special needs community to be heard, which consists of special needs individuals, their families and friends, and volunteers and professionals who dedicate their time and effort to improve the lives of special needs individuals. We aim to provide information about FCSN events and programs; inspirational stories about special need individuals; and personal accounts of volunteer initiatives.
“As an adult volunteer for FCSN, I hope that FCSN Voices will reach out and touch the hearts of many people and inspire them to become involved with FCSN. By sharing stories, events, and perspectives from our large community, FCSN Voices could provide readers with an idea of the joy and fulfillment one feels from being part of FCSN’s welcoming family. I hope it will give potential volunteers some ideas of how they can use their unique skills and voices to support FCSN; for example, by contributing to this publication!”
FCSN Voices Advisor, Wei-Jen Hsia
Follow the FCSN Voices to stay tuned with new stories and events! If you have something to share, please contact our editors.
Meet the Team Behind the Scenes:
Parent Team
| Jing Bian | Manager | jbian@hotmail.com |
| Wei-Jen Hsia | Advisor | hsiawj@yahoo.com |
| Jim Chiao | Advisor | jim_chiao@yahoo.com |
| Helen Chou | Advisor | kaihuei.chou@gmail.com |
| Tao Wang | Parent Editor | sgt102@hotmail.com |
Mentor Team
| Shelley Li | Youth Team Mentor | shelleyli1314@gmail.com |
| Jessica Hung | Youth Reporter Team Mentor | |
| Amanda Loh | Graphic Artist Team Mentor | |
| Kristina Guo | Doodle Project Mentor |
Youth Leadership Team
| Isaac He | Team Lead |
| Helen Gu | Team Lead |
| Saanvi Shah | Assistant Team Lead |
| Thanisha Thambidurai | Assistant Team Lead |
| Christy Ma | Graphic Artist Team Lead |
| Megan Kellogg | Doodle Project Lead |
Youth Reporters
| Fiona Yang | Editor |
| John Boyle | Senior Youth Reporter |
| Lindsay Li | Senior Youth Reporter |
| Alice Zhang | |
| Andrew Lei | |
| Cody Chen | |
| Aivana Bhatnagar | |
| Alexandra Kwong | |
| Amy Han | |
| Andrew Li | |
| Aratrika Datta | |
| Carolyn Zhang | |
| Peter Watts | |
| Lora Lee | |
| Medha Mulabagal | |
| Yolanda Jiang |
Graphic Artists
| Karen Gong | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Alice Sun | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Angel Li | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Angela Zhao | |
| Casey Feng | |
| Christina Gu | |
| Audrey Wong | |
| Arelyn Ma | |
| Eva Luo | |
| Lily Tran | |
| Melody Chen | |
| Olivia Hu | |
| Saba Sharifolnasabi | |
| Sanaa Raje | |
| Vanessa Seah |
Multimedia
| Shelley Li | Blog Project |
| Eryn Ho | Website Project |
fcsnvoices.org 