"CHIRP" Winner of RSA Commissioner’s Award for Excellence in Rehab Education

Centers Hatching Initiatives for Realizing Potential

“It takes a village to raise a child.” This often-quoted African proverb is especially true for children with disabilities, and the need for this supportive village or community continues as children with disabilities grow and begin the transition to adult roles within those communities.

The University of Arkansas CURRENTS has been awarded a grant to encourage Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs) to coordinate services and develop working relationships with the Designated State Units (DSUs), other State agencies, councils that address the needs of specific disability populations and other public and private entities in order to develop supportive communities at the local and State levels to assist and sustain young people with disabilities as they make the transition from school to living independently in the community.

This project, CHIRP (Centers Hatching Initiatives for Realizing Potential), will accomplish these goals:

1. To improve cooperative working relationships between CILs, the SILC, the DSU and other relevant agencies in the State of Texas by focusing on the common goal of successfully transitioning young people with disabilities to adult roles in their communities.
2. To develop tools, techniques and strategies for CILs to add value to transition services in the State of Texas.
3. To build communities of support for youth in transition by strengthening collaboration.
4. To develop evidence-based practices for replication across the country.

With the input and assistance of a national think tank of experts in training, transition and CIL services and administration, CURRENTS will develop training, tools and strategies to assist CILs in developing and marketing transition services and in establishing and sustaining local and state level support networks for youth in transition.

These tools and strategies will then be pilot-tested in the State of Texas, where the DSU, the SILC and the Texas Association of Centers for Independent Living have already begun to explore ways to collaborate around the common goal of transitioning young people with disabilities. Through partnerships with the Regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Projects (RRCEPs), the IL NET and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), the training and tools can be disseminated and replicated nationwide.

Plan of Operation Timeline
Project Update Year Three Report

 

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