Youth

The Center for Transition to Adult Health Care for Youth with Disabilities, a national resource center funded by ACL’s Administration on Disabilities (AoD), recently launched a new website to help young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) direct their own transition to the adult health care system. Developed for and by youth with I/DD, the site has a variety of both person-centered and culturally competent tools and resources to help support youth, their families, and health care professionals through this transition. The new website includes resources that are designed to give youth more choice and control throughout their health care transition...

The Center on Youth Voice, Youth Choice is a national youth resource center that supports alternatives to guardianship through research, self-advocacy, outreach, coalition building and education. The Community of Practice will discuss best practices, support long-term change, and help elevate the voices of youth leaders in this work. Applications to join this network are now being accepted.

The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth) announced the release of two new publications about employment, transition, and education for youth with disabilities. The publications are: "By Youth, for Youth: Employment," and "Supporting Families of Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education: Learning from the Voices of Families."

The Office of Disability Employment Policy and the LEAD Center released three Employment First technical briefs for individuals working on the implementation of Employment First in their states, regions, and organizations. Each of the briefs offers different technical guidance on the following topics: Federal policy that supports Employment First systems, federal legal framework that supports competitive employment outcomes, and criteria for performance excellence.

The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability published "Designing Statewide Career Development Strategies & Programs," a guide to help states assist youth and youth with disabilities prepare for employment and college. This is a two-part guide which includes a primer for youth career development and an implementation guide with promising practices from successful programs for states to model.