From challenge to purpose

Felisa Strickland is the sole parent/caregiver to her adult daughter, Lily, who has multiple disabilities and requires 24 hr care. They live in Santa Barbara, California where they moved in 2012, after the passing of Lily’s father. Upon moving to Santa Barbara, Felisa found a wonderful disability community. She met other parents, learned ways to get involved and how to advocate for her and Lily, and for other families and their children with disabilities and special health care needs. Felisa has participated in many family parent to parent trainings and workshops over the last 10 years and currently co-facilitates a Parents of Adult Children with Disabilities support group with Alpha Resource Center of Santa Barbara. She serves on various committees providing parent support as well as fundraising for Alpha’s participants.Felisa is proud to serve as Board President for Alpha Resource Center. She also serves as Board Secretary for The Arc of California, where she is most recently excited to be a Family Coordinator and facilitator of their Caring Futures Initiative, a project to support aging parent caregivers of disabled adult children. Felisa is a contributing author in Becoming Brave Together, a candid and moving Caregiving Anthology released May 2024 and offered by We Are Brave Together. She shares her story in hopes that it encourages others to do the same. She believes our stories connect us, and that together we can bring about more love, acceptance and change to our world of disability and beyond.