That’s a wrap on the National Virtual Family Forum! Where do we go from here?

Our first major online event

The National Virtual Family Forum was a huge learning curve for all of us! Threads of Life staff learned how to coordinate a big online event, with sessions spread over weeks. Facilitators learned how to engage participants virtually. Family members learned how to connect at a distance. And we all learned a lot about technology – good and bad.

We are so thankful – for the opportunity to bring information, knowledge, coping skills and connection to all our family members in spite of the pandemic. We are thankful for the patience everyone showed with this new experience. We are thankful to our partners for continuing to support our work. Thank you to the family members who participated and also to our incredible facilitators: Darrin Parkin, Karen Simmonds, and Johanna LeRoux. We’re ever-appreciative of your support, knowledge, and compassion in delivering valuable sessions for all of our family members.

What’s coming up?

While it’s not the same as being together in person, meeting online does mean that almost anyone, in any region, can join in. As we’ve all seen, there are benefits to having a virtual dimension to Threads of Life’s services. We’ve been talking since before the pandemic, about virtual sessions as a way to sustain our network of healing in between family forums. We are at work now on plans for a continuing series of online workshops for family members, starting in early 2021. If you have ideas about topics you’d like us to tackle, please let me know! If you’re on our email list, you’ll receive an email from us when we have dates and topics to announce.

In the meantime, please continue to stay in touch with Threads of Life and with one another. Check out our Facebook page, where lots of family members share their thoughts. Pick up the phone or send an email to someone you met at a family forum. Through this winter, we all need to be there for each other.