UCEDD Leadership Development Institute
Location: Newark, DE at the University of Delaware
The application period for the 2012 UCEDD Leadership Development Institute has closed. Check back in early 2013 for information on the 2013 Institute.
For Institute preparatory materials, click here.
Institute Description
To better support the development of leaders for the UCEDD network, AUCD is partnering with The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware, of which AUCD is a Founding Partner, to offer the first UCEDD Leadership Development Institute. The Institute is supported by the Administration for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities under a contract to AUCD. UCEDDS operate in a challenging, stimulating and complex environment made up of institutions of higher education, community service and supports organizations, state and regional governments and, of course, families and self-advocates.
The Institute will be a week long intensive executive development program, focused on new UCEDD directors, and Assistant Directors, Program Directors and others in UCEDDs who, in the opinion of the UCEDD's leadership, demonstrate both potential and willingness to assume senior leadership roles in the UCEDD network.
As you will recall, many of us have been concerned about the development of the next generation of leaders for the UCEDD network for a number of years now. Many UCEDD Directors have been in place for many years, and in the past five years we have seen numerous UCEDD directors retire or leave their positions.
AUCD has been working with AIDD and the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities (NLCDD) at the University of Delaware on this topic. With strong support and financing from AIDD, AUCD's technical assistance contract has included funds for a leadership institute for UCEDD personnel.
Planned activities will include a five-and-a-half-day day leadership institute as well as optional follow-up webinars/ teleconferences, and participation in the national listserv for Leadership Institute graduates. The goal of the initiative is to identify and support emerging leaders and provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to become transformational leaders of UCEDDs. The AIDD contract will underwrite a portion of the course, with UCEDDs agreeing to sponsor a participant, and to contribute $1,000 towards the effort. The course will be structured to accommodate no more than 25 participants and each participant will be selected through a competitive process.
Institute Details and Costs
The Institute provides UCEDD-specific leadership development at half the cost of the traditional Leadership Institute, with remaining costs covered by AUCD's Technical Assistance contract with the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The UCEDD Leadership Development Institute maintains the same cancellation policy as the traditional Leadership Institute, which can be found here.
The leadership institute participants are responsible for:
- $1,000 tuition (which includes week-long institute, materials on site, 1 lunch, and 3 dinners)
- Travel and hotel at $154/night (which includes breakfast)
- 3 lunches and 2 dinners, plus meals during travel
- Cost of books for required reading in advance of the institute
Initial LIst of Topics to be Covered During the Leadership Institute
A brief survey will be conducted with UCEDD personnel to refine this effort which will incorporate some of the existing elements of the NLCDD's existing leadership institutes, and add elements tailored specifically to the environments in which UCEDDs operate.
- a history of the field as a context for change
- understanding one's own strengths and needs relevant to leadership; working with University higher administration
- managing people, budgets and organizational relationships - managing both up and down
- cross systems collaboration and innovation, including collaboration with DD Network partners
- strategic visioning, planning, strategically-driven decision making, and organizational change
- managing for quality and outcomes to meet the needs and desires of people with disabilities and their families
- the fiscal and managerial challenges of UCEDD operation
- selecting and supporting quality staff
- assuring commitment to positive values/promoting a positive organizational culture
- building leadership within one's own UCEDD and state, including mentoring graduate students, staff who are newer to the disability system, and emerging disability leaders in their states
- increasing and supporting diversity and cultural competence in UCEDDs
- applying strategies for problem-solving
- adapting to philosophical, organizational, and public policy shifts
- achieving success in an academic environment
- having a positive impact on public policy and the future of services
A particular goal of this Leadership Institute will be to support participants to understand and integrate the sometimes polarizing goals of assuring quality services and supports for people with developmental disabilities and their families, producing research that supports evidence-based practice, and succeeding in an academic environment. These do not need to be treated as competing activities. Participants will be helped to understand the synergy that is created when science, advocacy and practice are joined in common purpose toward improved lives and opportunities for people with disabilities. Faculty members who have operated successfully in the worlds of practice, management, research, and academia will supplement the regular Leadership faculty to assure significant discussion of what is required to achieve positions of leadership in the UCEDD and larger university environments.
