Meet Barb from the Pause Board!
One of our Pause individual values is the Value for Neurologic Diversity because while culture may honor a standard for “typical”, we believe all humans have value, gifts and challenges. A diagnosis can be confusing, so we must be willing to learn, change our mind and see the person as a person and not a problem. We recognize humanness before behavior, are willing to advocate and are willing to learn from those who have value and wisdom to share.
Advocating for Pause families might look like attending IEP meetings as peer support or sharing trauma responsive resources with schools, professionals and caregivers to better understand the young people in their lives. Sometimes it looks like connecting caregivers who have years of experience with caregivers just receiving a diagnosis for their child.
Pause Board Member, Barb Herrington, has led a life of advocacy for her kiddos and now she will do the same for all Pause kiddos! Barb says she is the luckiest woman in the world because she’s married to her amazing husband Lance, and has two incredible kids, Brooke & Luke. As a family, they love to hike, bike, camp and swim! They also love to play games, travel, dance, volunteer, and go to church!
Barb thinks it’s important to serve as a member of the board “to help support the amazing hardworking staff of Pause as the organization continues to grow. I see the amazing unique work that Pause is doing strengthening families in our community and I want to do all that I can to help that continue.” She also believes that “an individual on the Pause Board should be someone with integrity and compassion. Board members should support the organization’s mission and vision while also willing to respectfully speak-up for what is best for the organization.”
Barb shared with us, “When my children were born, I had planned to read to them every night, teach them the alphabet and how to count all before preschool so they would be great students and never struggle academically. A few years into my plan I started to realize things were not going as expected, and I soon found myself navigating through an unfamiliar and lonely time trying to find answers. After years of medical appointments, tutors, school IEP meetings and traveling for training I finally understood the path that needed to be taken for our child to start making progress.
I learned so much during that time and met amazing people that shared their knowledge and experience to give me hope and now I love to do the same. I’m so thankful that I’ve had multiple opportunities to share what I learned on my journey to help other parents advocate for their children or just be a listening ear during a difficult time.
I love that Pause recognizes the importance of supporting parents & caregivers and creates awesome opportunities for families to come together and find community; we all need that! I am thrilled to be a part of this wonderful organization!”
Barb - thank YOU for your commitment to continually push Pause towards our mission, vision and values. You embody what it means to be part of the Pause family and we are so glad you are with us on the journey.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
