Family Issues SIRG
Chairperson
Dr. Jan Blacher
University of California at Riverside
Report on First Year Activities, Families Research SIRG
The SIRG on Families Research was formed, informally, at the August
2000 meeting of IASSID in Seattle. Jan Blacher was the appointed Chair
at that time; since then, Chris Hatton has been appointed secretary. We
have 42 members on our roster. The first meeting of the SIRG was held
at the Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual Disabilities
in Charleston, South Carolina. There were approximately 20 people present
at that meeting.
Report on First Year Activities, Families Research SIRG
Overview
To date, we have become an "organized" group, with the following
designated activities completed or in various stages of planning:
(1) Three of our Families Research SIRG members will be editing a "special
issue" of JIDR (the official journal of IASSID), focusing on research
on families from an international perspective. (See enclosed flyer). The
Editors of the "special issue" are Jan Blacher, Gwynnyth Llewellyn
and Chris Hatton.
(2) Two of the SIRG members are organizing symposia on families research
for the European IASSID meeting in Dublin, June 2002 (Chris Hatton and
Jan Blacher). Jan Blacher was also invited to serve as a Plenary Speaker
at the Dublin conference.
The members of this new SIRG expressed interest in developing a significant
program of research on families for the 2004 meeting in France; an agenda
for this will be set following the Dublin, 2002, meeting. We aim to have
significant international involvement in the planning.
Aims & Visions
A primary aim for this SIRG is to promote more awareness and participation
in "Family Research and Intellectual Disability." We are pursuing
this by producing a Special Issue of JIDR on the topic (and, to date,
we have been overwhelmed with the quality of submissions to the issue,
2-1-02), having a Plenary Speaker at the European IASSID in Dublin in
June, 2002, and maintaining contact with SIRG members. Our vision is to
have a significant number of papers (and hopefully, at least one Plenary
Session) on Families research at the 2004 meeting in Montpelier.
The IASSID SIRG on Families is devoted to the study of families whose
lives have been touched by persons with an intellectual disability. Members
come together from around the world and enjoy the sharing and collaboration
of their ideas and research. Member interests are broad and include intellectual
disability issues such as maladaptive behavior, placement services, and
cultural differences to name a few.
If you are interested in joining the SIRG on Families, please e-mail your contact
information to [email protected]
and we will gladly add your name to our member directory.
Another very interesting web site for those interested in the family SIRG is
www.familienprojekt.net
Contact Address: Dr. Jan Blacher,
Professor School of Education
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone 1 (909) 787-3875 and 1 (909) 787-3849
Fax: 1 (909) 787-3942
Email: [email protected] (Jan
Blacher)