About the Project
Planning Grant
The Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (GUCEDD) was one of ten UCEDDs across the U.S. chosen to conduct a Community-based Transition Partnership Planning project. This one-year planning grant (7/1/20 – 8/31/21) was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL), Administration on Disabilities (AoD). The grants were given to existing UCEDDs to convene partnerships in states to develop plans for community integration, by developing sustainable community-based transition pilots, for youth and adults with intellectual disabilities and development disabilities.
The GUCEDD grant, called the Transition Supports for Parents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Partnership, had the following goal and objectives:
Goal: Convene a partnership in the District of Columbia to develop a sustainable plan that addresses the unique needs of parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to support the transition of their children with and without disabilities throughout the life course.
Objectives:
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of cross-system services for parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to examine the extent to which they are responsive to parental needs to support their children as they transition from early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, to young adulthood.
- Engage in a consensus process to develop a city-wide cross-system action plan that describes a set of core principles, identifies barriers, gaps and current capacity, delineates best and promising practices, and advances the implementation of a pilot that enables parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to support the transition of their children throughout the life course.
Outcomes: Several outcomes resulted from the partnership, including the: (1) first citywide consensus plan and stakeholder partnership focused on the unique interests and needs of parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities and defined cross-system changes that will enable them to support their children with agency through their life course transitions, (2) development of Transition Supports for Parents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Partnership Project: Action Plan & Project Final Report for The District of Columbia (new window), and (3) application and awarding of a three-year Transition Implementation Partnership or TIP grant to put into practice, with the continued collaboration of our partners, the work identified in the Action Plan.
Implementation Grant
The Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (GUCEDD) applied for and received a three-year implementation grant (9/21 – 8/31/2024 ). The Transition Supports for Parents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Partnership is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL), Administration on Disabilities (AoD). The grant has the following goal and objectives:
Goal: Implement an action plan within multiple DC systems that enables parents with IDD to support the transition of their children with and without disabilities throughout the life course in the communities in which they live.
Objectives:
- Reconvene and restructure the Transition Partnership, composed of persons with the lived experience of IDD and key stakeholders representative of DC’s racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, to implement the action plan.
- Provide technical assistance/consultation to 11 members of the Transition Implementation Partnership (TIP) to identify policies, practices, procedures, and guidelines within their respective government/non-profit agencies that pose barriers for parents with IDD when they access/navigate services for their children with and without disabilities during each major stage of developmental transition (i.e., early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood)
- Collaborate with five members of the TIP to create a series of professional development, in-service training protocols, and materials that enhance the capacity of personnel across DC systems to assist parents with IDD to better support their children’s developmental transitions.
- Develop and disseminate a set of five tools to guide organizational change efforts to modify/ create policies, practices, procedures, and guidance for parents with IDD to support the developmental transitions and their children.