Project Description:
Faith Based Supports include a variety of activities and projects that encourage congregations to include and support members with disabilities and their families. With funding from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities in New Jersey is leading a two to three year project in Pennsylvania focusing on training of clergy in issues related to disabilities, community, and congregational supports. The project will first work with seminaries, Clinical Pastoral Education programs, and other congregational leadership training programs in Pennsylvania to determine ways that disability issues are currently integrated into their curriculum offerings and training programs. The goal of the project is then to help develop the capacity of those programs to offer a variety of ongoing training opportunities students and clergy who come through their programs. A second major goal of the project is to find and/or provide leadership to continuing education opportunities for clergy sponsored by faith communities, and, correspondingly, to provide resources and strategies to help people with disabilities, their families, provider networks and advocacy groups to work in partnership with clergy and congregations.
The Clinical Pastoral Education Program is a unique preservice training program developed in collaboration with three seminaries in New Jersey and community based provider agencies which serve as placement sites for students in the program. The CPE program is accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. The goals of the CPE program are to enhance the skills of seminaries, clergy, and laypersons in the delivery of spiritual supports to people with disabilities and their families and to strengthen their skills in development of community supports and advocacy for people with disabilities and their families. The Boggs Center is the only UCEDD with an accredited CPE program and the only CPE program based in community agencies serving people with disabilities. The benefits of the program include enhanced skills by community clergy and congregational members to include and support people with disabilities and their families, enhanced supports for staff who are dealing with spiritual issues in their work with consumers, and enhanced spiritual supports for people with disabilities in the agencies where the students work.
Keyword(s):
religion, spiritual supports, congregations, pastoral education
Core Function(s):
Training Trainees, Developing & Disseminating Information, Continuing Education/Community Training
Area of Emphasis
Quality Assurance
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Community Trainees / Short term trainees, Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Adults with Disabilities, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN, Legislators/Policy Makers, General Public
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
Another State, State, National, International
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
