The Institute for Human Development (IHD) at Northern Arizona University was recently awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Disabilities to develop a comprehensive, integrated\u00a0pilot\u00a0plan for transitioning youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I\/DD) to employment and\/or postsecondary education in the state of Arizona.<\/p>\n
Transitioning from a student to adult life is always challenging, and this is especially true for youth and young adults with I\/DD. In Arizona, there are numerous organizations currently\u00a0working to\u00a0facilitate\u00a0transition for youth with I\/DD. For this grant,\u00a0IHD will\u00a0bring these\u00a0diverse\u00a0stakeholders together and form a coalition,\u00a0called\u00a0Arizona Coalition for Transition<\/em>\u00a0Success\u00a0<\/em>(AzCTS),<\/em>\u00a0to collaboratively develop a\u00a0seamless, integrated\u00a0Transition Success Plan\u00a0that will\u00a0support better outcomes for employment and postsecondary education.\u00a0IHD\u00a0envisions\u00a0a comprehensive transition plan\u2014by and for Arizonans\u2014that empowers youth and young adults with disabilities to make informed decisions and, importantly,\u00a0to exercise control over their transition from students to adults,\u00a0in order to achieve their personal goals and preferences.<\/p>\n NAU\u2019s Institute for Human Development is part of a nationwide network of designated University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). For this project, IHD\u00a0is collaborating with\u00a0Arizona\u2019s other UCEDD, the Sonoran UCEDD at\u00a0the\u00a0University of Arizona, as well as The Arc of Arizona, IHD\u2019s Consumer Advisory Council and other community partners to form\u00a0AzCTS.\u00a0 The group will perform\u00a0a comprehensive\u00a0review and analysis of the current transition landscape in Arizona\u00a0and identify effective practices and supports\u00a0leading to the development of a\u00a0\u201cno wrong door\u201d\u00a0approach to successful transition\u00a0pathways\u00a0for young adults with disabilities. The \u201cno wrong door\u201d approach is designed to ensure that consistent information about transition processes, services and supports is available to youth with disabilities, families and providers across public and private agencies in Arizona.<\/p>\n IHD Associate Director Jill Pleasant explains, “The Sonoran UCEDD, our counterpart organization in Tucson, has laid a strong foundation\u00a0regarding transition and employment.\u00a0 We are thrilled to collaborate to really move the needle for\u00a0improving\u00a0transition outcomes in Arizona. Our state\u2019s transition leaders know that better transition outcomes for persons with I\/DD\u2014folks integrated into their communities, exercising personal choices and using systemic supports\u00a0to access employment and postsecondary education\u2014 benefits everyone in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Institute for Human Development (IHD) at Northern Arizona University was recently awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Disabilities to develop a comprehensive, integrated\u00a0pilot\u00a0plan for transitioning youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I\/DD) to employment and\/or postsecondary education in the state of Arizona. Transitioning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest100220"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/institute-human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}