TACA's Parent Mentor Guidelines

TACA is a network of support groups in Southern California for parents with children affected by Autism. 

Thank you for becoming a TACA mentor! We typically try to refer no more than 6 families a year to each parent mentor and spread out the referrals over time (not all at once!!)

We cannot promise how many folks we will send you but here are some notes on how to be a mentor.  The bottom line, do what you feel is right and help where you can and where help is needed. Here are some "GUIDELINES" to consider for being a parent mentor. It is up to you to implement what you want to do.

1) About 6-10 times a month we receive an email request for a parent mentor by a parent, typically new to the autism world.

2) These parents are looking for

  • someone who knows their school district /regional center
  • someone who has a program in place or had one in place and can speak about it (ABA or Floortime - some variations, Speech, and preferrably OT.)
  • someone who does the GFCF diet and can assist the family in implementing this (mostly via email, it would be nice to share recipes or have you tour a health food store for friendly products)
  • someone to help set expectations for an IEP or Regional Center meeting - please help the new family prepare (some mentors attend this meetings with the family but that is not required)
  • someone that has some background on initial medical testing and beginning vitamin supplementation
  • someone that has some resources that are trusted and in the area (such as GFCF markets, therapy supply stores, speech paths, hopefully a good doctor and other providers)
  • Mostly they want somewhere to go when they have a question. You many not be able to answer all the questions, but you are a friendly voice in the scary world of Autism.

3) Email contact will be sent to you with the new family email address, name and childs name/age. The goal would be to contact them by email to start. It is up to you if you would like to exchange email, phone calls or personal visits.  Also, it is up to you how long you want to mentor each family. If chemistry is not right or it does not work out, let me know and a family can be reassigned.

NOTE:  It is optional but highly recommended to share IEP notes, goals & objectives and IF POSSIBLE attend each others IEP's as an IEP buddy system!

4) We try to refer to each mentor no more that 3-4 families a year. It really depends on how many requests we have and for what area. Some mentors have gotten 5 families this year and others NONE. It is all based on location of the mentor!!

5)  When families get a diagnosis - they are very fragile (remember?!)  Help them mourn but not to lose sight of their original goals and love for their child.  Make sure you help them plan for the future as they did before.  This is a very hard topic but always relate back to how you felt when your child was first diagnosed. Try to help them with this very hard time period.

Final note:  a family can move only so fast. Try to pace the goals for your new mentor family. Make sure you don't overwhelm them and try not to be judgemental. It is hard and you want to help with all guns loaded and ready to go! But remember, most new families are like a deer in headlights... treat them like you wish you could have been treated after getting the diagnosis.

6) Help create check lists of things to do. Again, do not overwhelm them: try to start out with a few items every week or two. Add items as necessary. Reminder" Autism is a marathon NOT a sprint race!!"

7)  Remind parents that you are not a doctor, not an attorney, just a parent. Parent mentors are volunteers and working to help other families get traction in the autism journey and help child be the best they can be!

Thanks for your generous offer to help. Contact Becky Estepp if you have questions.