Hi friends, welcome to a new season of Take the Next Step, a podcast for families experiencing disability. We are part of the Hope Heels Network, bringing you weekly encouragement and practical next steps to help your family thrive. Why? Because your family matters. Your child matters. We need you among us. I’m Amy Julia Becker, writer, speaker, and mom to Penny, our 20-year-old daughter with Down syndrome. Each Wednesday, I will share with you short, hope-filled conversations from fellow parents, experts, therapists, disability advocates. We will explore how to navigate the challenges of parenting and caregiving for children with disabilities, how to create moments of delight, joy, and connection at home, how to connect with a supportive community where your family knows that you belong, and how to take meaningful, manageable steps toward a flourishing future.
In this new season, I’ll be talking with professor, author, and parent advocate Chris Cipriano about how to be unapologetically impatient for change when our kids need it. I’ll also talk with family therapist David Thomas about equipping our kids to be capable, researcher Megan Burke about advocating for our kids, parent advocate Misty Coy Snyder about navigating different life stages for kids with disabilities, and so much more. If you are a parent or caregiver who’s feeling overwhelmed, searching for connection, or wondering what comes next, you are not alone. Join us each week as we offer meaningful, manageable steps to cultivate a thriving future for your whole family. I don’t want you to miss even one episode, so follow Take the Next Step on your favorite podcast app. New episodes will drop every week starting August 26th, and I look forward to being in conversation with you there. Take the Next Step is a resource from the Hope Heals Network, a collective of thought leaders offering honest and hopeful wisdom to help people flourish in the good and hard parts of their stories. To learn more about the work of Hope Heels, visit Hope Heels.com.