AUCD Central Office News

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Call for Proposals: AUCD 2013 Promoting Inclusion in an Increasingly Diverse World - Deadline Extended

This year's Conference theme promotes our network values of inclusion of all persons with developmental and other disabilities in community life and engages the network in conversation and practices to ensure our work reflects the changing cultural and linguistic landscape in our Centers and States. The 2013 AUCD Conference  provides a special opportunity for you to share your interests, talents, and perspectives in the areas of promoting inclusion, increasing diversity, and a wide range of disability related topics with others in our network and our partners. Read more and submit your proposal by June 12, 2013.

A Collaborative Interagency, Interdisciplinary Approach to Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood

This paper promotes four core concepts that are essential to the development and implementation of effective transition plans and process: (1) Self-determination should be the foundation for transition planning; (2) Transition should be viewed through a cultural lens; (3) Interagency collaboration is essential to effective transition (4) Transition planning should include all the perspectives, disciplines, and organizations that will impact the transitioning student. This paper was written for and by directors and staff UCEDDs and LENDs with the aim of promoting a dialogue among key stakeholders and facilitating their engagement in pursuing a more comprehensive, coordinated, supportive, and successful transition process for youth with disabilities from adolescence to young adulthood. Read more....

President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities Report on Managed Long-Term Services and Supports

The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID) 2012 report on Managed Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) has been released. The purpose of the report is to provide background on MLTSS to assist the intellectual and developmental disability community with understanding the changes and ways to influence outcomes and to provide the President and Secretary of Health and Human Services with recommendations. Read more....

Jonathan Jenkins, MA, is AUCD's Early Career Professionals' June Guest Blogger

AUCD is happy to announce the Early Career Professionals’ June guest blogger – Jonathan Jenkins, MA. Jonathan is currently a Predoctoral Psychology Intern at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School and he is a former LEND Program graduate. Next year, he will work for The Help Group in Los Angeles as the organization's Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology with a Focus on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Read more....

Network News - Awards & Honors

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Indiana LEND's Dr. Kuo Earns Award from AOTF

Dr. Fengyi Kuo, OT Coordinator for the Riley Child Development Center, is awarded the AOTF Award for Community Volunteerism. Since 2008, Dr. Kuo has been actively involved in the Burmese refugee community in Indianapolis, the largest in the United States. Because of her involvement and contributions as an occupational therapist, she was invited to join the Burmese Community Center for Education (BCCE) and Burmese American Community Institute (BACI) to lead their programming in support of Burmese refugees' access to health care and their transition to American life." Read more...

Network News - Activities & Resources

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Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD): Addressing the Needs of Individuals with Autism and Families

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD) addresses the needs of individuals with autism and their families through education, training, research, intervention, and public policy. Read more about some of the programs and activities in which the Center's faculty and staff are engaged. Read more...

The Bodies of Work Program (IL UCEDD/LEND) Featured in the Chicago Tribune

Lyrical dance pieces incorporating performers in wheelchairs, a one-man show promising "funny stories about cancer" and the Lookingglass Theatre's world premiere adaptation of "Still Alice," a New York Times best-selling novel about a college professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, are included in the rich pool of offerings in "Bodies of Work," an 11-day festival of disability arts and culture.The idea behind the festival, says Bodies of Work director Carrie Sandahl, an associate professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who also heads the university's Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities, is to "illuminate disability experience in new and unexpected ways." Read more...

New Online Course and Nutrition Curriculum at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center (MA UCEDD/LEND)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center Launches Online Course for Parents of Children with Autism

Great work is being done within the UMass Medical School community to address the needs of families, individuals, and professionals that are touched by autism. Discovering Behavioral Intervention: A Parent's Interactive Guide to Applied Behavior Analysis is an online instructional guide that was created by parents and child development experts from UMass Medical School's Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center to help parents of children with autism and the professionals who support them. " Read full article here...

Health U.: A Nutrition Curriculum for Teenagers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Faculty, staff, and trainees at the UMass Medical School/E.K. Shriver Center LEND and UCEDD programs have published a curriculum, Health U.: A Nutrition Curriculum for Teenagers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, designed to teach youth with intellectual/developmental disabilities about healthy eating/healthy lifestyles. The curriculum was developed as part of foundation- and NIH-sponsored research and has been refined through its implementation with students in educational settings. Read more...

2013 APHA Disability Section Scholarships

The Disability Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) announces up to four $1000 Career Enhancement Scholarship opportunities for 2013. These scholarships can be used by the awardees as desired, including to defray expenses for attendance at the Disability Section Scientific Program and Business meeting at the 2013 American Public Health Association Annual meeting in Boston, MA from November 2-6, 2013." Read more...

26.2 miles in the Rain for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD) Reading Clinic Organization: Vanderbilt Kennedy Center

The scheduled day of the Nashville Country Music Marathon did not present optimal weather for a long-distance running event. However, a few raindrops -- or rather, a lot of raindrops -- wouldn't stop Andrea McDermott Sanders (Peabody M.Ed. '08) from pressing forward and running her ninth Country Music Marathon to raise funds for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD) Reading Clinic scholarships through Team William. Team William is an endowment Sanders created after working on reading skills with an exceptional young man with Down syndrome named William Spickard. Sanders had the desire to make "reading a reality" for other children with disabilities, and saw the importance and necessity of the VKC Reading Clinic. Since the fall of 2005, with support from donors, more than 23 Reading Clinic scholarships have been awarded to 13 children with disabilities.  Read more...

Center for Leadership in Disability (GA UCEDD) Launches Positive Behavior Videos Website

The Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University has created a new website, www.positivebehaviorvideos.org. Through www.positivebehaviorvideos.org, you can complete a tool, created by Dr. Daniel Crimmins, that makes the positive behaviors supports process easy for everyone to use called the Brief Behavior Questionnaire and Intervention Plan (BBQuIP) The BBQuIP uses a series of questions to help teachers, child care providers, and parents in determining what a child is trying to communicate through his or her actions and behaviors. The BBQuIP focuses on the child's strengths and provides a framework for teaching new skills. After completing the BBQuIP, you are provided with a comprehensive behavior plan specific to the needs of your student or child. Through the use of a username and password, you may return to the site as frequently as desired to access previously completed BBQuIPs. This website is free and available for all to use. Read more...

New Resources from the VR-RRTC (ICI MA UCEDD/LEND)

The Vocational Rehabilitation & Training Center (VR-RRTC) at the ICI is pleased to share with you two case study reports on important employment issues in vocational rehabilitation agencies. Read more...

Maine UCEDD and DD Council Among Co-Sponsors of National Task Group Conference on Aging, Dementia, and Developmental Disabilities

The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (ME UCEDD) and the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council were among several co-sponsors of and participants in an educational conference on aging, dementia, and developmental disabilities in Bangor, ME on May 23, 2013. The conference attracted over 200 participants, including family members, direct support workers, clinicians, program staff, and administrators concerned about adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.  Read more...

Submissions

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News items may be submitted for consideration via the
AUCDigest Submission page.

Cultural and Linguistic Competency (CALC) Professional Development Training for the Vermont LEND Program 

The Vermont LEND program faculty and staff enjoyed a full day of Cultural and Linguistic Competence professional development with some very special guests. Learning about other cultures and how best to support them in the program and in the community has been and will continue to be a strong goal of the VT LEND program. Read more...

Upcoming AUCD Webinars

NCEDC Webinar: Web 2.0: 10 Years On
June 20 | 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST

As we head into the second decade of Web 2.0 (and its' awkward teenage years), let's take some time to examine what Web 2.0 was, is and will become.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Consumer Advisory Committees (CACs)
June 26 | 3:30pm - 4:30pm EST

This webinar provides an opportunity for UCEDDs and CAC members to share some innovative practices and strategies that have been found useful in enhancing the effectiveness of CACs.

Read more about our webinars and register.

June 27-28, 2013
Seattle, WA

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington will host the symposium, Disability, Technology and Rehabilitation in Low and Middle Income Countries, at the University of Washington.  Read more...

July 15-19, 2013
Toronto, ON

The theme of the 2013 Summer Institute is "In God There Is Diversity, But No Division: Building Interfaith Dialogue and Collaboration through Theology and Disability." As the title suggests, with the diverse city of Toronto as backdrop, the focus will be on exploring disability and theology from a variety of religious perspectives and traditions. Read more...

July 29, 2013
Manchester, NH

This conference from the UNH Institute on Disability's National Center on Inclusive Education (NCIE) Summer Institute will provide learning experiences for families, educators, community service providers, community mental health professionals, and self-advocates who are working to promote inclusive education and transition experiences for students who have challenging behaviors. Read more...

August 2, 2013
Davis, CA

The UC Davis MIND Summer Institute is a day-long series of workshops which will help participants keep pace with the latest advances in neurodevelopmental research and the most current standards for best practices in prevention, assessment, treatment, and support services. Read more...