“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 |
Youth Leadership Team
| Shelley Li | Team Lead | shelleyli1314@gmail.com |
| Isaac He | Team Lead | |
| Meryl Zhang | Team Lead | |
| Shayla Kumaresan | Asst. Team Lead (YR) | |
| Amanda Loh | Asst. Team Lead (GA) | |
| Lesley Xu | GA Lead | |
| Kristina Guo | Asst. GA Lead |
Editor Team
| Jessica Hung | Editor |
| Aaron Zhou | Editor |
| Emily Chao | Editor |
| Arushi Pandit | Editor |
| Helen Gu | Junior Editor |
| Rachel Lee | Junior Editor |
Youth Reporters
| Rachel Lee | Senior Youth Reporter |
| Helen Gu | Senior Youth Reporter |
| Jooah (Julia) Lee | Senior Youth Reporter |
| Crystal Fan | |
| Lindsay Li | |
| Shuhan Jin | |
| Kai-Hsuan Chiu | |
| Brian Rong | |
| Medha Mulabagal | |
| John Boyle |
Graphic Artists
| Katherine Geng | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Olivia Koo | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Karen Gong | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Kaitlyn Huynh | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Anna Wang | Senior Graphic Artist |
| Megan Kellogg | |
| Reece Huang | |
| Christy Ma | |
| Angel Li | |
| Helen Peng |
fcsnvoices.org 