Advancing Strong Leadership in Developmental Disabilities
See list of 26 program participants
Amid increasing demand for high quality, responsive, supports for individuals with developmental disabilities, it became known that leadership of organizations dedicated to the provision of those services were retiring. With the projected exit of over 60% of the leadership of North Carolina nonprofits over the next five years1, a critical need exists for developing new leaders who can respond to the growing demands for quality services from families, states, and most importantly, from persons with developmental disabilities themselves.
Dr. Robert J. (Bob) Rickelman, Chairman of the North Carolina Council on
Developmental Disabilities, on the Advancing Strong Leadership Program
"Our overall purpose is to be responsive to the needs of people with developmental disabilities, in North Carolina specifically. So we have a lot of different projects. One of the things that is a fairly recent project that really excites me is a youth leadership project which just got off the ground a few weeks ago. A while ago Holly Riddle and I were in a room, looking around and seeing people of a similar age, and wondering, 'Where's the new leadership going to come from?' It's really important that, as the baby boomers age out and retire, we find people to replace us, and so we just got a group together a few weeks ago – I think there are 25 in that group – and over the next several years they'll meet together, they'll work together, they’re being mentored by different agencies around the state with the hope that over the next 30 or 40 years, these folks will provide leadership within the state. It's based on a model that was started at the University of Delaware, but I believe that we were the first State that's done that at the State level, rather than the national level, and we actually had folks from the University of Delaware take part in the initial training. And they said, 'It's innovative; it's cutting edge,' and there's a lot of interest in the country in what we're doing in North Carolina."
To cope with this situation a three-year leadership development program for early career professionals in North Carolina was created. This project is modeled after a successful University of Delaware leadership development project. The North Carolina Initiative is offered by the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware, in partnership with the Community Resource Alliance, and is funded by the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Activities include a leadership institute, quarterly workshops, monthly webinars/teleconferences, and mentoring. The goal of the Initiative is to identify and support emerging, early career leaders and provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to become transformational leaders who will have significant impact on the lives of North Carolinians with developmental disabilities and their families, on progressive disability policy in North Carolina, and on the developmental disabilities field nationally. An additional goal is to establish a model for regional expansion and national replication of the project.
The project will target emerging and future organizational leaders in the developmental disabilities field with the goal of creating a cohesive group of emerging young leaders. Twenty-five individuals, under the age of forty, who have made a demonstrated commitment to the developmental disabilities field and have held increasingly responsible positions in support of people with developmental disabilities, will be selected for participation in the three-year leadership development effort. This initiative is for organizational leaders; applicants must currently be employed by a developmental disability organization that is supportive of their participation.
Targeting emerging and future organizational leaders in the developmental disabilities field with a goal of creating a cohesive group of emerging young leaders, 25 individuals under the age of forty, who had made a commitment to the developmental disabilities field and had held increasingly responsible positions were selected for participation in the three-year leadership development effort. This initiative is for organizational leaders; applicants must currently be employed by a developmental disability organization that is supportive of their participation.
1Change Ahead: The 2004 nonprofit executive leadership and transitions survey. (2004). Baltimore, MD: The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Overall goals for participants are to:
1) promote and be able to implement the shift to individualized, responsive supports;
2) commit to self-direction and the need for people with disabilities and their families to be full participants and leaders;
3) use knowledge gained about personal strengths and needs as leaders to continue to increase effectiveness;
4) use connections for on-going networking, mentoring, and support;
5) understand and pursue progressive public policy that will support quality of life for North Carolina citizens with developmental disabilities and their families;
6) commit to their role as mentors to transmit knowledge and values to staff and future leaders; and
7) move into positions of progressively greater responsibility.