Transitioning to Empowered Lifestyles for Young Adults With Disabilities
The University of Missouri Kansas City Institute for Human Development (IHD)
and MPACT have created a partnership to provide transition training and
information to families across Missouri. This project is designed to
enhance the capacity of students with disabilities and their families to be
self-determined in planning for and obtaining desired lifestyles in their
community upon graduation.
Some of the initiatives of this project include:
1. Training and mentoring MPACT’s regional parent trainers to
provide more effective training, information, and support to other families.
2. Providing direct community training and support to families
within a person centered framework that includes:
- Self-determination and self-advocacy
- Person Centered Career and Lifestyle Planning
- Effective school-to-community transition planning
- Understanding Social Security Benefits and Work Incentives
- Navigating Adult Service Systems
3. Creating family informational resources on each of the
above topics
Students, their families, teachers, and others close to the student are
invited to attend transition training workshops as a team. At these
workshops students and their teams will have the opportunity to develop a
transition plan that is based upon each students unique interests, preferences,
and support needs. Following is an outline of some of the transition
information that will be covered at these workshops.
Module 1: Self-determination (Adobe PDF format)
- Self-determination: What is it and how do you achieve it?
- Understanding your rights and responsibilities
- Supporting students and families to be self-determined in transition
planning
Module 2: Person Centered Planning (Adobe PDF format)
- Values, policy, and practice (Person-centered vs. system centered)
- Recognizing interests, gifts, talents, hopes, and dreams
- Developing focus team partnerships, collaboration, and shared
responsibility
- Creating personal profiles that develop a vision for a meaningful
lifestyle
- Developing life goals that support career, community living, and
recreational choices
- Using personal networks to build a bridge to life goals and develop
employment and community living opportunities
Module 3: Quality Transition Planning (Adobe PDF format)
- Transition planning: What is it?
- Understanding my rights and responsibilities in the transition process
- Connecting a person centered plan to a transition plan
- Being self-determined in transition and IEP planning
- Developing and identifying outcome oriented post school outcomes
- Developing meaningful transition plans that support these outcomes
- Utilizing community resources and a “circle of support” to achieve these
goals
Module 4: Social Security, Work Incentives, and Medicaid (Adobe
PDF format)
- Myths surrounding SSA programs
- Overview of SSI Programs
- Overview of Work Incentives (e.g. IRWE, PASS, Student Earned Income
Exclusion)
- Advocacy strategies for establishing eligibility
- Strategies for managing benefits and work incentives
- Using SSA programs to support life goals and support transition planning
Module 5: Navigating Adult Service Systems (Adobe PDF format)
- A customer and participant driven approach to obtaining needed support
and services
- Best practices in employment and community living support
- Identifying quality supports/services and providers of these
support/services
- Understanding programs and services (e.g. Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, Department of Mental Health, Department of Family
Services, School-to-Work, Independent Living Centers, Family Directed
Support)
- Successfully negotiating these systems and developing effective
partnerships to support life goals
- Identifying and using other community networks and services (e.g.
churches, chambers of commerce, realtors, caring communities)