The University of Arizona Sonoran University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (SUCEDD) will host 3 students in 2017-2018 in a Diversity Fellowship program. Fellows will receive training and leadership skills in the disability field, while creating SUCEDD programming and conducting outreach to underserved communities regarding the long-term individual and social effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The project goals are two-fold:
The SUCEDD’s existing certificate curriculum will provide formal disability education, thus augmenting structured mentoring and leadership development. Fellows’ capstone projects will center on addressing Native community-identified needs for TBI information and resources. Throughout the year, SUCEDD faculty will document the program and process in order to create a plan for sustaining the Diversity Fellowship into the future.
The goal of the USC UCEDD Diversity Fellowship program is to train and graduate one long-term Fellow (300+ hrs) who is a member of a racial/ethnic group currently underrepresented in the developmental disabilities field (preferably Hispanic), who has the knowledge, skills and competence to influence policy and practice at a systems level on behalf of underserved individuals with or at risk for intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Diversity Fellow will receive formal training on I/DD and systems which serve this population through participation in the CA-LEND long-term training program and will spend half of these hours in the field learning about the roles of each of the DD network partners in CA, and how they promote systemic change, individually and collectively. Funding from this program, will allow the fellow to have field experiences in LA and Sacramento, CA’s capitol, to understand and experience how legislation is crafted and passed to inform public policy for individuals with I/DD and how laws are then implemented at the local level. In addition, the Diversity Fellow will develop skills to analyze the nature of facilitating factors that promote laws effectively at the local level and barriers that prevent this process.
JFK Partners prepares fellows from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to create systems change on behalf of persons from diverse backgrounds who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Diversity Fellows will select one of two training tracks consistent with previous preparation and individual goals: a) Health Professional Diversity Fellowship or b) Advocacy (self- and/or family-advocacy) Diversity Fellowship. JFK Partners is committed to the recruitment of culturally and ethnically diverse individuals. Bilingual Spanish-speaking applicants, and other qualified applicants, are encouraged to apply.
During the 2017-18 academic year, JFK Partners faculty will mentor and train five culturally/linguistically diverse Fellows in selected coursework from the interdisciplinary core UCEDD/LEND curriculum, consistent with level of prior preparation, culminating in a community-based Capstone Project. Practicum experiences and completion of the Capstone Project will be dependent upon training goals. Recruitment of one Diversity Fellow for 2018-19 was initiated in fall 2017.
Goal: JFK Partners will expand their Diversity Fellows Program which prepares trainees from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to create systems change on behalf of persons from diverse backgrounds who have intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families.
Objectives are to:
Georgetown University UCEDD will recruit, retain, and prepare one fellow from a racial/ethnically diverse background to assume leadership in early intervention for children and families from high risk urban areas experiencing health disparities due to background, disability, and social risk status. The fellow will receive didactic, service provision, and leadership training through:
The fellow will engage with local, regional, and national networks of providers, advocates, program administrators, and government officials to exchange information, knowledge, and strategies that support AIDD diversity objectives. The goal is to develop a Diversity Fellowship program that prepares professionals to deliver evidenced based, culturally and linguistically competent early intervention to children and families in high risk urban areas. The objectives are to:
The anticipated outcome is that children with developmental disabilities and/or delays and their families in high risk urban areas will receive services from a highly trained, culturally and linguistically competent interventionist who also will influence policy and practice in early intervention. The expected product includes service guidelines focusing on diversity, disparities, and cultural and linguistic competence.
The goal of the Institute on Human Development and Disability’s (IHDD) Diversity Fellowship is to support a University of Georgia graduate student from underrepresented/culturally diverse groups. The student will be newly recruited to IHDD, funded through a graduate assistantship. She/he will attend the AUCD conference and will be linked with AUCD, the UCEDD network, and other Diversity Fellows nationally. In addition, she/he will participate in IHDD events and will be mentored by IHDD faculty from diverse backgrounds and by the more advanced Diversity Fellow from the previous cohort.
The Diversity fellow will enroll in one graduate level IHDD course(s) focusing on the social construction of disability and disability history. They will also be exposed to curriculum materials related to the intersection between race/culture and disability, and developing cultural competence. They will have increased knowledge and skills related to implementing culturally competent practices in working with people with disabilities, developing culturally and linguistically competent materials, disability studies content, and IPSE programs. The fellow will increase her/his knowledge of issues diverse people with disabilities face and will gain research and leadership skills.
The Fellow will complete a capstone project which will include piloting, revising, and disseminating a peer mentor training curriculum (developed by the fellow in previous cohort), for students with intellectual disabilities from underrepresented groups in IPSE programs. The Fellow will engage with IPSE programs in Georgia and beyond while piloting and revising the capstone project. When completed, the IPSE peer mentor curriculum will be disseminated to IPSE programs in Georgia, to the Georgia IPSE Consortium, to other UCEDDs, and to Think College, the national coordinating center for IPSE. The aim of the curriculum is to provide IPSE programs nationally with a tool to assist in recruiting and supporting underrepresented students.
The main goal of this proposal is continue our Diversity Fellowship Program at the UIC UCEDD, the Institute for Disability and Human Development (IDHD). This program will sponsor up to four fellows who identify with at least one of the following categories defined by AIDD:
The Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities at Kennedy Krieger Institute (MCDD) recruited a diversity fellow in partnership with the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The fellowship complements a number of efforts underway at MCDD to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities across the lifespan from varied racial and ethnic minority backgrounds and their families enjoy increased and meaningful opportunities to access and use community services. During the course of the fellowship, the fellow will work with a statewide advocacy group of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, People On the Go of Maryland (POG), to develop initial goals around diversity, cultural competency, and inclusion. The fellow will work with regional and local groups of under-represented minorities in disability advocacy to identify and prioritize group needs. Other work includes assisting self-advocates with improving the quality of their member data, and working with POG and MCDD to develop a plan for a multi-year approach to improving diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency within the self-advocacy network.
The Institute for Community Inclusion, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at the Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), will partner with a Community Based Organization (CBO), the Somali Development Center (SDC), to recruit one SDC Diversity Fellow for a year-long intensive training program and Capstone project on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and cultural issues. The goal of the SDC Diversity Fellowship is to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of I/DD in the population served by the SDC and facilitate access to services and supports. The objectives are:
The goal of the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Institute (MI DDI) Diversity Fellowship Project is to support one long-term Fellow who is a member of a racial/ethnic group currently underrepresented in the intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) field (preferably Arab American) to increase his/her knowledge and skills in the area of leadership, cultural competency and networking across disability related organizations. The Diversity Fellow will receive formal interdisciplinary leadership training on I/DD and systems which serve this population through participation in the MI-LEND long-term training program and will spend half of these hours in the field learning about the roles of each of the DD network partners in Michigan, and how they promote systemic change, individually and collectively.
Four objectives support this goal:
This program will support the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act's (DD Act) goal to bring larger numbers of racial and ethnic minorities into pre-service training and complete community training to address the growing needs of an increasingly diverse population. The project will enroll Somali Community Health Workers (SCHW) into an integrated curriculum of coursework, interdisciplinary clinical training, and completion of a capstone project. The goals of the project are to increase diversity at the UCEDD and to address health disparities among Somali children with ASD/DD. Outcomes will be measured through collection of NIRS data on trainee diversity and via qualitative data regarding attitudes/beliefs and practices of Spmali mothers regarding ASD/DD. Additional trainee data will be collected using the Individualized Learning Plans and the Cultural Competency Self-Assessment and dissemination metrics of activities and products will be collected and reported in NIRS.
Goals and objectives of the project are as follows:
The University of Tennessee Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities (BCDD), a University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), in partnership with the University of Memphis, a minority-serving institution, develops and implements a sustainable diversity fellowship to address disparities experienced by historically underrepresented communities in Memphis. Objectives include:
The proposed project focuses on increasing awareness of disability issues within Native American (NA)/American Indian (AI) populations in Utah and building disability leadership opportunities for people from this minority group. Utah is home to five NA/AI tribes (Ute, Paiute, Goshute, Shoshone, and Navajo) and other racial groups, who consistently demonstrate high need in the areas of education and health services. Partner agencies will help to contact and recruit affiliated members from their organizations as well as local support groups, Native American Student Council (NASC), school districts, and local health agencies such as the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake City (UIC-SLC) to help advertise, recruit, and identify NA/AI communities’ leaders and potential resources to be included into the project process. For example, our project partner, the Psychology Department at Utah State University (USU), has a long history of supporting and educating leaders who come from NA/AI backgrounds through its long standing (since 1986) American Indian Support Project (AISP), have already helped us to recruit a leader fellow who will work with the Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) project staff to collect data, prepare materials and information important to NA/AI families who have a family member with disabilities or who are at risk for disabilities. We will collect qualitative data (interviews, observations, and focus groups) from Utah NA/AI participants. This information will be analyzed, discussed, and processed by the project team before sharing through a series of collaborative, culturally appropriate, interactive presentations to both academic and NA/AI community audiences. The recruited fellow will become an active member of a network that will provide updated disability related health information to diverse NA/AI families and communities.
The West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities (WVU CED) will expand its existing Diversity & Disability Fellowship Program (FY16 and FY17) by seeking to create the Health Professional Diversity and Disability Fellowship (HPDDF) Program. The HPDDF Program will increase fellows’ knowledge of disability services and supports and improve the workforce capacity of fellows to serve individuals with disabilities and their families. The fellowship’s focus on health professionals will reach a different student population who will work with individuals with disabilities in their healthcare careers. The goal of this program is to recruit fellows from diverse backgrounds and increase their knowledge of disability (e.g., etiology, impact), disability services, and health care considerations for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, we will improve the workforce capacity of fellows to serve individuals with disabilities and their families. We have adapted the existing fellowship curriculum to address our goals for health professions students. In the proposed funding period, we will complete the following objectives: