AUCD 360 - February 2021

AUCD for ALL 2021: Celebrating 50 Years of Leadership: Looking Back, Moving Foward

Join us for our virtual 2021 AUCD for ALL Gala to celebrate 50 years of leadership as well as amplify the voices of current and future leaders. See the About page for more information on AUCD's 50th, the Sponsors page for our list of current Sponsors, and the Support AUCD page to learn how you can be a sponsor or support AUCD in other ways. The AUCD virtual Gala is free to all! We look forward to celebrating with you on April 14th and come back to this website for more information as we confirm honorees and other planning details. Read more...

5th Annual AUCD Leadership Academy

The AUCD Leadership Academy is seeking 24 participants from UCEDDs, LENDs, and their disability partners to join its fifth cohort for a year of exploration. The academy is grounded by a week together of study, shared experiences, self-evaluation, and skill development. The cohort will be held virtually as a series of webinars, videos, and online meetings. Participants will also continue to engage with their cohort, academy staff, local coaches, and national allies in the year following the experience. Register for the 2021 AUCD Leadership Academy Informational Webinar.

Watch Plenary and Awards Ceremony Videos from the AUCD 2020 Conference

AUCD is pleased to provide video recording of our conference plenary sessions, "Opening Plenary: What is Equity and What does it Mean for the Disability Community," "Leading Change to Achieve Equity: Conversations We Need to Have," and the Closing Plenary: Engaging with Congress to Achieve Equitable Communities." Watch the plenaries again and hear firsthand from community members, national disability leaders, parents, federal officials, and people with disabilities. Read more... 

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Vermont Wins Second International Innovative Public Policy Award for Supported Employment

The Vermont Transition and Post-Secondary Education Initiative is a collaborative effort between organizations throughout the state including the Developmental Disability Services Division, the Agency of Education, and post-secondary organizations including Think College Vermont, at Vermont's UCEDD, the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion. It promotes college education and industry-based career training for transition-age youth with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities and promotes access to lifelong learning for adults. Read more...

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Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Produces Two New Toolkits on Goal-setting, Puberty and Sexuality for Teens and Young Adults with Autism

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC)(TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) has added two new online toolkits to its collection of free resources, providing helpful information for teens and young adults on the autism spectrum on topics such as goal-setting and sex, sexuality, and puberty. Both toolkits are comprised of online courses as well as complementary booklets available to download or print to accompany the coursework. Read more...

University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies and Software Developer Adapt Video Conferencing App for Students with Complex Communication Needs

Remote instruction poses significant obstacles for children with complex communication needs, including difficulty accessing Zoom, Google Classroom and other popular speech- and text-based communication apps. To give educators an alternative, the University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS) became a beta tester for Co-VidSpeak, a video conferencing app originally designed for intubated hospital patients. Read more...

OR Institute on Development & Disability Supports COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics

The Institute on Development & Disability at Oregon Health & Science University is working with our broader OHSU health system and community partners including Port of Portland, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the local Red Cross to offer a drive through vaccination site for people with disabilities and their caregivers."As the director of an institute that focuses on people with disabilities I am so thrilled that we're all coming together to make sure we're meeting the needs of this part of our community," said Kurt Freeman director of the OHSU Institute on Development and Disability. Read more...

Changing Needs of Individuals with Disabilities in Miami in the Time of COVID-19 

The Family Navigator Program (FNP) is designed to assist families of individuals with disabilities, chronic health conditions, mental health issues, and other special needs in navigating the complex system of services. Based out of the Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami, the program is free and available to all families. The FNP is funded by a grant from The Taft Foundation. Navigators work to connect families with appropriate resources based on their needs. Since mid-March 2020, following the implementation of COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders, the FNP has worked with families to address their changing needs. Read more...

Two Georgia University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) Launch the Georgia College Transition Partnership 

The Center for Leadership in Disability (CLD) at Georgia State University and the Institute on Human Development and Disability (IHDD) at the University of Georgia received a $100,000 grant from the Administration for Community Living to launch the Georgia College Transition Partnership (GaCTP). The goal of the GaCTP is to create a pilot program that supports Georgia's college students on the autism spectrum who are transitioning into employment or graduate school. Read more...

Developing Professional Standards of Inclusion for Community Settings 

At the Cincinnati Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) program, one of our research projects involves creating a comprehensive set of standards for inclusion that we can use to help public venues become more inclusive. Although public venues are required to meet accessibility standards under the ADA, many individuals and families with disabilities still do not have true access to inclusion. Read more...

ICI Welcomes Julie Bershadsky, PhD, as Director of Community Living and Employment

Julie Bershadsky, Ph.D., will join the Institute on Community Integration on January 27 as the director of ICI's Community Living and Employment area and co-director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living.
Dr. Bershadsky spent the past eleven years with Human Services Research Institute, a longtime partner of ICI, providing analytic and methodological guidance and expertise to numerous agencies, organizations, and systems. She brings deep expertise in assisting organizations to analyze, improve, and monitor the delivery and outcomes of long-term services and supports for people with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. Read more...

HDI Recieves Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Grant

TA team of HDI staff including Dr. Chithra Adams, Jason Jones, Lindsey Mullis and Abby Marsh have received $50,000 through Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundations 2020 COVID-19 Quality of Life grants program, funded through a cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living. Their proposal, Recharging Resiliency Together-Virtual Retreat will help people with paralysis recharge their resilience and provide the necessary connections and supports that are needed to navigate in a COVID-19 environment. Read more...

Project BEST

Project BEST (Basic Employability Skills Training) is set to begin its first pilot of the BEST Curriculum. The curriculum is based on employment skills trainings that were identified as important and necessary in both the literature and through community based surveys. Due to COVID-19, both a digital course and a paper based course, as well as workbook materials, were created for teachers to use to support employment skills training for their students. Read more...

Wisconsin Resource for Families

During COVID-19, the UCEDD at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison has regularly updated its website to include family and self-advocate friendly materials that change daily as new information and resources emerge. The UCEDD's Constituent Advisory Committee members provides guidance on what is most helpful and how to present information to maximize the user experience. . Read more...

New Staying Safe at Work Training

Employment Safety Training supports the needs assessment process designed to address gaps, deficiencies, and unmet occupational safety and health training needs. The IOD's Employment Safety Training program provides attendees with critical job-safety tools for teaching those with IDD the skills they need to be safe at work through a train the trainer model. Read more...

National Autism Indicators Report- Health and Health Care

The National Autism Indicators Report: Health and Health Care is the sixth in the National Autism Indicators Report Series produced from the Life Course Outcomes Research Program area at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. It reports indicators of health and health care for autistic people across the lifespan. Topics covered include overall health, health services, medication, insurance, and accessing services. The report combines data from two national surveys about health, one national sample of hospital inpatient stays, and previously published findings from Kaiser Permanente Northern California patient records. Read more...

Great Cartoon Giveaway!

In collaboration with UVM Libraries, CDCI is proud to announce the Great Cartoon Giveaway! The Center for Digital Initiatives now holds the complete set of cartoons created by Dr. Michael Giangreco with the assistance of artist Kevin Ruelle. This collection, titled Absurdities and Realities of Special Education has more than 300 cartoons, including some of the pair's most recognized works. Read more...

Holly Roberts, PhD, Takes Part in National HHS Panel

Holly Roberts, PhD, associate professor at the Munroe-Meyer Institute's Department of Psychology, was an invited panelist in a national Health and Human Services Telehealth Innovation Summit with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in late December. In its invitation, HHS told Dr. Roberts that the summit was designed for leaders in the telehealth community to share what they have learned and to discuss challenges and opportunities in reimbursement, best practices, public-private partnerships, health care resilience, biosecurity and the future of telehealth. Read more...

Diversabilities' Employee Resource Group

Ashlee Leslie, Nisonger Center Disability Career Specialist with the TOPS Program; provides leadership in helping establish the 'Diversabilities' Employee Resource Group to promote and support disability inclusion, highlight best practices and provide education to The Ohio State University and Wexner Medical Center by bringing employees and resources together to provide support for individuals with disabilities, allies and their caregivers. Read more...

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2021 EHDI Conference Scholarships for LEND Audiology Trainees

Deadline: February 22, 2021

AUCD is pleased to announce the availability of 25 scholarships of up to $225 each to support LEND audiology trainees in attending the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Virtual Conference on March 2-5, 2021. All current LEND audiology trainees are eligible to apply. However, priority will be given to trainees from programs that do not currently receive supplemental funding and trainees that have not attended the EHDI Conference in previous years. Register for the 2021 Post-EHDI LEND Workshop. Read more... 

From MN LEND to the National Institute of Mental Health

A fascination with the brain and how it influences behavior began with a high school psychology class for Sunday Francis (MN-LEND 2014-16). It has brought her through the fields of neuroscience, engineering, genetics, and autism research at several prestigious universities. This month, Francis' path took her from the University of Minnesota's Department of Psychiatry to the National Institute of Mental Health, where she is a research fellow exploring translational approaches across multiple developmental disorders. Read more... 

MN-LEND Project Responds to Opioid Crisis

What can you do if your baby, or a loved one's baby, has neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS)? How can a toddler's development be affected by NAS? Where can Minnesotans find support? As part of their 2019-20 MNLEND fellowship experience, Bridget Winchester (pictured) and Catie Mapa are answering those questions, and more, through online content expected to be launched next month from the MNLEND website. Read more... 

Sharing Stories of Individuals with Disabilities: Vanderbilt Consortium LEND's Collaboration with Saddle Up!

Vanderbilt Consortium LEND's trainees have been split into groups to work on interprofessional collaboration group projects. My group is working with Saddle Up!, a therapeutic horseback riding program in the Nashville, TN, area. Saddle Up! provides Adaptive Riding, Therapy Services, and an Equine Assisted Learning Program to individuals with disabilities ages 2-26. Our LEND trainee group will be holding focus groups with the parents of some of the children utilizing these services, in order to hear their stories. Read more... 

Kanas LEND Partners to Disseminate PCIT Across Kanas

Kansas LEND partnered with another HRSA grant, Telehealth ROCKS (Rural Outreach to Children of KS)/ KANDO, to take the first step in disseminating Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) throughout the state. PCIT is an evidence-based intervention that has been shown to be effective in improving behavior, language, social skills and play in young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (ADHD, Autism) and trauma. Read more... 

Self-Care for Caregivers

Caregiving can be hard. Being a caregiver to a child, friend, or family member with a disability or a chronic illness can be stressful at times. I am sure that you've heard the old adage that, "You must take care of yourself before you can take care of someone else." Easier said than done, right? It may sound like an out dated platitude, but as caregivers, we need to carve out time for ourselves. It can be as little as five minutes in your day to do something to boost your spirits so that you don't feel overwhelmed. Read more... 

Human Rights Depend on Democracy: Protect it

Working Well with a Disability Workshop Added to Healthy Community Living

Working Well with a Disability has been added to the Healthy Community Living program, alongside the existing workshops and trainings Living Well in the Community, Community Living Skills, and the Facilitating Groups training. Healthy Community Living is a program that is facilitated by staff from disability service organizations, such as Centers for Independent Living. HCL licenses are $500 per year and give access to up to five facilitators. Read more... 

What's is your "Silver Lining"?

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about countless changes and struggles to our day to day life. Change is not always easy, but it has been shown that finding the good in difficult situations can have a positive effect on our mental health. What has been a recent positive change in your life? Take MI-DDI's "Silver Linings" survey to share your story! Read more... 

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2021 Early Hearing and Detection Intervention (EHDI) Annaul Conference

March 2-5, 2021, Virtual

In its 20th year, the EHDI Conference has built a strong reputation for bringing together a wide variety of attendees including those who: work in state Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs; assist in EHDI efforts on the federal level; provide screening, diagnostic, and early intervention support at the state/ local level to young children with hearing loss and their families; champion Medical Home activities within each state; are parents of children with hearing loss; or are deaf or hard-of-hearing adults who are helping to expand opportunities for young children with hearing loss. Read more...

AMCHP 2021 Annual Conference

March 2-5, 2021, Virtual

The 2021 AMCHP Annual Conference will be held May 22-25 at the New Orleans Marriott in New Orleans, LA. At this time, AMCHP is planning for an in-person meeting in New Orleans with a virtual component and registration option. We will update the AMCHP membership community if it is necessary to alter the conference format due to COVID-19. Read more...

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