American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN; Indigenous) children are at high risk for neurodevelopmental disorders including developmental delay, learning disabilities, and conduct disorders. Major risk factors, in addition to low socioeconomic status, are the loss of traditional child-rearing practices due to historical trauma, racism, and oppression.

The National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (NRCN) in partnership with the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) will be leading this conversation to identify and engage disproportionately impacted communities on the topic of COVID-19 through a national virtual event.

AUCD hosted a webinar in September 2021 on incorporating the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Action Plan into the UCEDD five-year plans. In this follow-up virtual workshop, UCEDD leaders will discuss strategies for demonstrating their ED&I commitments in the needs, evaluation, organizational capacity, and leveraging sections of the core grant application.

AUCD's Interdisciplinary Technical Assistance Center (ITAC) on Autism and Developmental Disabilities, in partnership with The Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University, is hosting a series of virtual trainings for LEND Programs in October 2021 related to self-advocacy. While the intended audience is LEND leadership and faculty, all are welcome. Trainings will be conducted virtually and recorded and archived for those unable to attend the live sessions.

In this webinar, we will share about AUCD's Language and Communications Access Plan and lessons learned from the first two years of implementation. From 2019-2021, the UCEDD Resource Center (URC) supported a pilot implementing the plan, with the creation of the Plain Language Advisory Group and Spanish Language Caucus. Join us to learn about the work of both groups, what the URC has learned in its efforts to improve the language and communications accessibility of its technical assistance, and how this might apply to the work at your center or program.

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Action Plan calls for UCEDDs to work with their Consumer Advisory Committees (CACs) to incorporate specific goals, objectives, and actions steps to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion into their five-year plans. In this virtual workshop, UCEDD leaders and staff will explore how to effectively accomplish this priority within and across the UCEDD core functions.

In this webinar, expert coaches will share their experiences implementing the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan. They will share some of the challenges they've faced and strategies they've used to make meaningful progress on the action steps outlined in the plan. In addition to the panel discussion, learn more about the coaches' areas of expertise since these coaches are available through the end of September for individualized coaching opportunities.

AUCD, ICI-UMass Boston, and Humanity & Inclusion (HI) invite you to join a Professional Fellows alumni webinar on how university centers, DPOs, and other disability rights groups in the United States and East Africa can create independent, sustainable partnerships that promote inclusive employment and education in lasting ways.

In this webinar, the AIR-P Autistic Researcher Review Board (ARRB) will discuss how autism researchers can respect and include the autistic community in their work from participants to co-researchers. ARRB researchers will discuss autistic experiences with participatory research approaches that include diverse autistic people from across the autism spectrum as members of research teams. Furthermore, ARRB researchers will present concrete recommendations about how participatory research practices can be implemented. Considerations around appropriate and respectful autism terminology will be addressed.

This webinar introduces a new technical assistance (TA) initiative to support the implementation of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan. The UCEDD Resource Center is accepting applications for coaches and implementors from the UCEDD network to be a part of this TA initiative. Please join us to learn more about the call for coaches and implementors and how to apply. A question and answer period will follow a brief presentation on the TA plans.

The Morehouse School of Medicine National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (MSM NCRN) coordinates a strategic and structured national network of local, state/territorial/tribal, national, and community-based organizations that will mitigate impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minority, and rural populations. This project is supported by a $40 million award from the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services Office of Minority Health as part of the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC). The MSM NCRN is in partnership with community-based organizations, corporate companies, academic institutions, healthcare centers, hospital systems, faith-based organizations, and federal agencies.

This panel of experts will describe the process used for recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and the challenges and barriers each faced throughout their experiences.

Mentoring is fundamental to growth and success. Therefore, it is incumbent for mentors to have the ability to discuss challenges faced by culturally diverse individuals and, ultimately, have a repertoire of mentoring strategies to develop talents and skills in mentees from underrepresented backgrounds in LEND programs. This webinar will present mentoring theories so mentors will have a basic understanding of the mentoring process and provide strategies that promote communication and trust between mentor and mentee.

The Langston University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center will use the study findings to highlight the visibility of high-quality research created through MSI-based research centers. The LU-RRTC will also use study findings to make recommendations to policymakers, NIDILRR, and other federal research funding agencies, and other stakeholders on how to address identified challenges.

The goals of this presentation are to share the strategies the UCEDD uses to sustain the Interdisciplinary Training Program as an online model, and, encourage discussion among other training directors, coordinators, and staff about innovative strategies to recruit, engage, retain, and effectively train a diverse pool of trainees.