Leadership and Community Support
Partners for Inclusive Communities Training
Overview
The UConn UCEDD developed materials and recruited guest speakers for two Partners for Inclusive Communities Trainings funded by the CT Council on Developmental Disabilities. Both trainings, conducted in Spring 2021, were six sessions long and addressed foundations of community inclusion, inclusive education including Think College, community living, Employment First, and impactful leadership. Fourteen participants in the CT Partners for Inclusive Communities: Disability Policy Training for Community Leaders received a Certificate of Completion and 12 provider participants in the CT Partners for Inclusive Communities: Disability Policy Training for Providers did as well. Specifics in each topic area were geared toward the needs of each group.
Goals
The goal of the training for Community Leaders was to create leaders from a variety of community sectors and current services/supports providers to assure continuous improvement in the quality of inclusive life of people with I/DD in the community. The goal for the training for providers was to develop leaders in provider agencies with a deeper understanding of community barriers to full inclusion faced by people with disabilities, a stronger commitment to addressing those barriers, and the leadership skills necessary to implement systemic changes in their agencies and communities to remove those barriers.