By  Lou Goscinski Director of Pupil-Personnel Services, SAU #45 For the past two years the Moultonborough School District and NH Connections have collaborated on a variety of activities to increase family/school partnerships in the Moultonborough School District.   Beginning in September of 2008, NH Connections and the school district worked cooperatively with parents and teachers to establish a parent support group entitled Moultonborough Special Needs Alliance Committee (SNAC).  A major goal of SNAC is for families and educators to work together to address collaborative goals.       NH Connections played a key role in the development of SNAC, providing a framework from which to build a partnership group as well as mentoring and support of parent leaders.  This allowed the group to build relationships among group members and the larger school community.  Collaborating around common goals and events helps build partnerships.  In January of 2009, two premiere viewings of the movie “Including Samuel” were held.  In addition, during the winter and spring, NH Connections, the school district and SNAC partnered to bring three workshops to the Lakes Region.  More than 400 students, parents, educators and community members attended all of these events. The community was energized to continue to improve family/school partnerships.  The collaborative efforts of the school district, SNAC and NH Connections skyrocketed during the next school year!  The Lakes Region Friendship Connection program began, offering children and youth with disabilities after-school social and recreational opportunities in various community-based settings.  Parents benefit from the group through social networking with other parents.  It is the partnership between parents, the school district and the community that makes this program successful.  SNAC continued to hold educational events.  Collabora-tive education workshops were held, allowing everyone to learn about special education and related topics together.  The major event of the school year was the special screening of the Temple Grandin movie and panel discussion with four individuals living with Asperger Syndrome.  This collaboration between the school district, SNAC, NH Connections, Asper-ger’s Association of New England and HBO impacted over 100 people.  We are taking the momentum from this event into 2010 school year.  NH Connections Special Education Partnerships Website     Lou with NH Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry at the 2009 Parent Involvement Recognition Awards Starting POINTS for NH Parents An Online Community for Parents of Children with Disabilities Join our new online community to read articles, learn about training opportunities, communicate with other parents in forums, comment on and rate resources, and much more! Click to learn more. The NH Parents Make the Difference website is a collaboration between the Parent Information Center of NH and the NH Department of Education.  This website is supported with funding from the US Department of Education through the NH State PIRC grant of the Natonal PIRC program. © 2010 The Parent Information Center of NH