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ITAC Bulletin Board - February 2019

February 21, 2019

As you continue the current academic year and look forward to future years, we recognize the importance of delivering information and resources that may be timely to MCH training programs. It is our hope that you find the resources contained in this newsletter useful in supporting the work of your faculty and trainees. 

You'll notice that the newsletter sections mirror the AUCD Strategic Map priority areas. In doing so, we wish to highlight network resources and efforts that guide our collective work and mission. 

Grow Diverse and Skilled Leaders

This section will highlight resources / opportunities for leadership at all levels by cultivating and equipping leaders with the skills to engage communities and improve systems.

Newly Added Training Toolbox Strategies!*
ITAC's Training Toolbox serves as resource for programs to share innovative training strategies/activities on topics related to leadership and Maternal and Child Health. This Toolbox makes it easy for your program to browse through different, proven methods used by other programs to teach important concepts to their trainees.

  • Maternal and Child Health: Hawai'i LEND Scavenger Hunt
    • The purpose of the activity is to have Trainees familiarize themselves with the navigational challenges of statutorily funded programs and agencies that serve children with special health care needs. Trainees prepare by completing readings about key pieces of federal legislation (Title V of the Social Security Act, DD Act, IDEA, etc.) that created and maintain these various systems.
  • Family Centered Care: Workshop on the Intersection of Culture and Diversity 
    • Annually, ITAC staff collaborate with LEND pediatric audiology faculty to plan and host a workshop exclusively for LEND pediatric audiology trainees that takes place the day before the national Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Meeting. The 2018 iteration, titled "Intersectionality of Culture and Diversity," allowed over 90 trainees and faculty representing 17 programs to meet in-person and discuss about family-centered care.
  • Family Centered Care: "Family Teams" Of Young Adults With Disabilities And Their Parents And Siblings As Trainers For Medical Students
    • Students first receive a didactic session on the topic and then attend small group breakouts each facilitated by a "family team" who share their journey and perspective on family centered care. Family Teams are comprised of an older teen/young adult with disabilities and their parent and/or adult sibling. During the medical student didactic, the family teams have the opportunity to gather, network and review the objectives of the interactive break out groups.

*Please note that these are summaries of the strategies. By clicking the link and browsing these, and other, strategies, you will be able to learn more details around the strategy, associated learning objectives, benefits, supplemental resources or links, and the challenges/lessons learned.

 

2019 AUCD Leadership Academy
June 23- 28, 2019, Atlanta GA
The AUCD Leadership Academy is a week-long program designed to enhance the skills of current and emerging leaders from the disability network to build coalitions to improve systems of supports and services. The Leadership Academy seeks participants from UCEDDs, LENDs, and their disability partners to come together to immerse themselves for a week of study, shared experiences, self-evaluation, and skill development. Participants will engage with their cohort, Academy staff, local coaches, and national allies in the year following the experience. Application deadline: March 1, 2019 by 5:00pm ET


Emerging Leader Engagement
The AUCD Emerging Leaders Interns act as connection points between the national network and each Program/Center by ensuring trainees receive relevant information and opportunities related to leadership, research, grants fellowships, emerging issues, and more. Meet our current 2018-2019 Interns, Shayla Collins and Nell Koneczny. If you are seeking to contact the AUCD Emerging Leaders Interns, please email [email protected].

 

Brief video presentation on the LEND NDD Curriculum Resources
In this approximately 15-minute video, Dr. Tyler Reimschisel, Director of the Vanderbilt Consortium LEND, discusses the NDD Core Curriculum Resources and how you can use this AUCD-supported resource in your program. The presentation includes a description of what the Resources are, their potential uses and limitations, the format of each resource page, a listing of all of the topics included in the Resources, how you can access the Resources on the Central NDD Core Curriculum Resources Moodle, and the logistics for obtaining your own version of the Resources on a Moodle for your program.

Model Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

This section will highlight resources / opportunities to reach out, engage, and include underrepresented groups to advance our knowledge and impact.

Input Needed: Advancing the Self-Advocacy Discipline in LEND Programs
The Purposeful Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Workgroup has created a task group to create 1-page ideas to help LEND programs initiate or advance the Self-Advocacy discipline in their program. Your answers to this survey will provide content for writing the 1-pagers. They are currently collecting information for the first 4 topics, which are:

  • How to meaningfully involve Self-Advocacy trainees with clinical or community-based experiences
  • Universal Design for Learning for LEND curriculum
  • How to Start Having the Self-Advocate Discipline, including challenges like transportation, stipend interfering with benefits, needing to be a matriculating student
  • Supporting Self-Advocacy Trainees at a Distance

Please complete the following survey by February 25, 2019: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PWD1pgrs

If you have any questions, please forward your questions to Dina Johnson ([email protected]).

 

Case Studies and Resources from AUCD's Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit!
This collaborative toolkit provides concrete objectives, strategies, and resources that help enhance diversity, inclusion, and cultural and linguistic competence; cultivate partnerships; respond to increasingly diverse communities across the country; and develop strategies for continuing efforts to better serve diverse populations. We welcome you to incorporate the resources and strategies outlined in this toolkit within the context of your program!

 

LEND Fellow Participation in the UCEDD Diversity Fellowship
AIDD awarded National Training Initiative grants to UCEDDs to develop diversity fellowship programs to support recruitment and retention of diverse trainees and build cultural and linguistic competence within their Centers. In the previous cohort, several LEND fellows participated in this Diversity Fellowship. Their projects are as follows:

  •  Understanding How Cultural Roots and Identity Shape Child-Rearing, Feeding, and Perceptions of Early Intervention Services by Esther Hsueh
    •  "I focused my capstone project in understanding different methods of infant/toddler feeding practices, mealtime behaviors, and family food preferences of different cultures by interviewing parents of children enrolled in early intervention. In addition, my project also focused on documenting family experiences in accessing early intervention services and perceptions of disability in their native countries and how it is similar or different to the view they adapted after immigrating to the United States."
  • Autism Screening Tools: Not Accurate for Minority or Low-Income Children by Tina Mounlavongsy
    •  "I worked with Autism Society of Colorado, THRIVE, Family Voices, and Parent to Parent of Colorado to create a policy brief that highlighted the significance of proper and accurate implementation of the screening tools (i.e SCQ) for Autism Spectrum Disorders. The hopes for this project was to raise awareness about the issue and create a tool that community partners can utilize to advocate for keeping trained professionals in schools to administer screening tools."
  •  Partnering with the Asian Pacific Development Center by Joelle Fang
    •  "I partnered with the Asian Pacific Development Center (APDC) and their staff members to increase their awareness of early intervention services available to Asian and Pacific Islander (API) populations so that they can better help the families they serve access early intervention services."

Embedding Cultural Diversity and Cultural and Linguistic Competence
This project is designed to research, develop, and disseminate a set of resources to embed cultural diversity and cultural and linguistic competence (CLC) in curricula and training activities. The project builds the capacity of network programs to embed widely accepted CLC policies, structures, and practices, with a special focus on unserved and underserved communities in the United States, its territories, and tribal communities.

  • Resource: A Guide to Cultural Competence in the Curriculum: Speech Language Pathology 
    •  The resource addresses the implications of cultural competence and language barriers in services and supports to people with IDD and their families through vignettes, case studies and student directed activities.
  • Resource: Project AWARE Cultural Competence Learning Community 
    •  The curriculum was designed to support a learning community that can commit to meeting together for an extended period of time. The year-long learning community consisted of education administrators reviewing, watching, and reading the resources included in the course outline and then meeting for a structured discussion of the content and how it related to their work on school-based mental health.

Advance Policies and Practices that Improve Lives

This section will highlight resources / opportunities that increase the use of evidence-based, culturally-responsive, and inclusive policies and practices.

Distance Learning Technology Resources: Tools for Interdisciplinary Training Programs
While a number of LEND programs have successfully incorporated distance learning approaches into their curricula, others have expressed through a variety of mechanisms (needs assessments, progress reports, etc.) a desire to build their knowledge base in this area, thereby increasing their capacity to engage non-traditional trainees and those outside major metropolitan centers. The resources developed were designed to support the increased use and effectiveness of distance learning technology across the LEND network. However, the information has relevance for training programs in the healthcare field and beyond.

 

Promoting Development Monitoring in Three States: Collaborative Approach through "Learn the Signs. Act Early" Ambassadors
Act Early Ambassadors work within a cohort of state and territorial leaders to support national, state/territorial, and local activities to improve early identification of developmental delay and disability through the promotion and integration of CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." (LTSAE) messages and materials across their state. Yetta Myrick, SunYoung Ahn, and Deana Buck took a collaborative approach to expand the impact of the LTSAE campaign in the District of Columbia and the two neighboring states in their first regional webinar.

 

Disability Policy Seminar 2019 and AUCD Policy Forum
April 7- 10, 2019, Washington, DC
The Disability Policy Seminar hosted by The Arc, UCP, AUCD, AAIDD, NACDD, and SABE is the premier opportunity to cultivate champions on Capitol Hill and advance the grassroots movement for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For 40 years, this unique platform has offered the opportunity to come together with passionate advocates, self-advocates, experts, and professionals in the field to learn about key issues. All AUCD Emerging Leaders and guests are invited to an exclusive Sunday pre-Seminar Policy Forum. Attendees will have exclusive access to Hill staffers and former trainees now working in policy and learn from the experts how to best craft your message for Wednesday's Hill visits to ensure that your policy education aligns with federal regulations (guide located below).

 

Education and Advocacy: Know the Difference (A guide for trainees)
As experts with lived experience and knowledge gained from training, research, and direct practice, we have a responsibility to engage in policy education and systems change. It is important to understand the ways you can engage as a representative of a federally-funded training program and which actions should be reserved to your roles as private citizen.

Conduct and Apply Research and Share Knowledge

This section will highlight resources / opportunities that engage the disability community to identify priorities and conduct research with the goal of accessible presentation of information.

AUCD's Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE)
CORE will hold its quarterly call on Tuesday February 26, 2019 at 2:00pm ET. To subscribe to the CORE email list for more information around upcoming CORE activities, please visit CORE's webpage or contact Luis Valdez ([email protected]).

 

2017-2018 Focused Assistance to Support Training (FAST) Projects
The hope is that these projects not only lead to measurable improvements for participating programs, but that their efforts can serve as innovative and resourceful models for other programs to address similar areas of need. See below for a list of past projects, and click the program to view additional information, such as products developed and primary contacts.

Upcoming Special Interest Group (SIG) and AUCD Council Webinars

  • Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorders
    • Monday, February 25, 2019
    • Please join AUCD's Autism Special Interest Group to hear about national work and discuss issues pertinent to the topic of early identification of autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Alacia Stainbrook from Vanderbilt Kennedy Center will moderate a three expert panel presentation and facilitate questions and comments from webinar participants.
  • Now Archived! Transition in Autism Spectrum Disorders
    • This webinar discussed issues pertinent to the topic of supporting autistic individuals as they transition to adulthood. Dr. Eric Moody from Wyoming Institute for Disabilities moderated a three expert panel presentation and facilitated questions and comments from webinar participants.

Resources and Announcements

AUCD for All 2019 Gala: Celebrating Leadership in Civil Rights
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
"You have the strength, patience, and passion to reach for the stars and change the world," said Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester at the 2018 #aucd4all gala. The AUCD for All celebration brings together leaders from all sectors who are tireless advocates for disability rights, equity, and inclusion. On this night we honor those who stand up for civil rights and lead the way toward inclusion, opportunity, and social justice for all.

 

Mark Your Calendars: 2019 Autism CARES Grantee Meeting
July 18-19, 2019
The 2019 Autism CARES Meeting will be held in-person on July 18-19* at the historic Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, DC. This meeting will be an opportunity for MCHB-funded CARES legislation grantees (representing research, training, and state demonstration stakeholders) to share information about activities within their respective networks, discuss emerging trends, and facilitate meaningful collaboration.
* LEND Directors will have a mandatory meeting at the same location on July 17.
Stay tuned for more detailed information regarding registration, meeting content and logistics, and opportunities to share your expertise in the event program.