The National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth (NCLD-Youth) is a youth-led resource, information, and training center for youth and emerging leaders with developmental disabilities, housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership and funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. NCLD-Youth is taking a positive development approach to working with the next generation of disability leaders, and developing materials to better prepare them for the transition to adulthood, and leadership, rather than focus on the negative statistics one hears so often about youth with disabilities.
We have decided to use the five areas of youth development and leadership, learning, connecting, thriving, working, and leading to guide our work. These five areas correspond with 7 of the 8 areas of emphasis listed in the Developmental Disabilities Act (employment, education, housing, recreation, health, childcare, quality assurance and transportation.) To look at youth with disabilities as an example, one could argue that it is no longer sufficient to say that simply because a young person with a disability knows what self-determination is, that they are a leader. Self-determination is certainly a very important set of skills to have, however, if he or she lacks competency in the five areas of development where self-determination would be utilized, it renders the set of skills ineffective. "An additional factor (to students with disabilities experiencing great difficulty in post-secondary education) is limited development of self-determination/self-advocacy skills when students exit high school. (Lamb, 2004)" As a young person, it is one thing to be able to feel confident in making a decision, however it is another thing to make an uninformed choice that can have long-term effects on one's life such as signing up for a credit card, applying for health insurance, getting married. NCLD-Youth is dedicated to helping the next generation of young leaders with disabilities receive the content they need to continue the next leg of the disability rights movement.
About NCWD/Youth
NCLD/Youth is very lucky to be connected to its sister center, the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth). While NCLD/Youth focuses primarily on issues of youth development and leadership for youth with disabilities, NCWD/Youth assists state and local workforce development systems to better serve youth with disabilities. NCWD/Youth strives to ensure that youth with disabilities are provided full access to high quality services in integrated settings in order to maximize their opportunities for employment and independent living. NCWD/Youth is also the home of the Guideposts for Success; an outlining of the transition needs of all youth, and the additional components that youth with disabilities need to have a successful transition to adulthood. For more on NCWD/Youth check out their website at: http://www.ncwd-youth.info.
There are four key partnerships to this project:
The Arc of the United States .
Florida Developmental Disabilities Council (FDDC) and Agency on Persons with Disabilities (APD)
New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council (NHDDC)
Inclusion Research Institute, Washington DC
Why we're needed? It is common knowledge that transition outcomes for young people with disabilities-especially youth with developmental disabilities-tend to be dismal. High rates of unemployment, early pregnancy, substance abuse, and incarceration are only a small segment of this stubborn dilemma. However, youth who experience opportunities to engage in youth development have a decreased risk of venturing down that path.
As a result of emerging leaders around self-determination, leaders in the disability community and
NCLD-Youth is tasked with developing materials and trainings that will be used to empower youth and emerging leaders with disabilities to influence and promote youth development and leadership public policy agenda at the state and local level.
This document was developed by the National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth, funded by a grant/contract/cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Developmental Disabilities (Number #90DN0206). The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nor does mention of tradenames, commercial products, or organizations imply the endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
