• Education
• Outreach
• Research
• Patient Care
• People

Sonoran UCEDD to help disabled youth transition to adulthood

The  Arizona Department of Economic Security, Division of Developmental Disabilities working in partnership with the Sonoran University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)  is one of 18 agencies nationwide chosen by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to test innovative approaches to creating more community based opportunities for people with disabilities.  The three-year $500,000 award will help create the Southern Arizona Person-Centered Planning (PCP) Model Program for youth with disabilities in Pima, Pinal and Cochise counties transitioning from school to adult living. The program, which will ramp up over the next few months, will train youth and their families to use a comprehensive and personalized approach in planning and mobilizing services and natural community supports to meet their needs. The initiative also will build on the strength of many community stakeholders in education, developmental disability services, behavioral health and employment to develop   for adult living.

Currently, when youth with disabilities get ready to leave school, they are often unaware or ill-prepared to exercise a range of options.  The new program will ask the youth to gauge their interests about where they would like to work, live and how they would like to live meaningful lives. It will also help create new support networks to help them accomplish their objectives.

The demonstration project will initially work with 60 youth with disabilities who are leaving the public school system (12 with co-existing mental health needs) to exercise their own choices about living arrangements, work life, social networks and services. By providing their preferences, the youth and other program participants will help create a better transition experience; one that program developers hope will become a replicable and sustainable statewide model.