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ABSTRACT

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center the (Center) on Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Practices for Youth and Young Adults is designed to provide a comprehensive, balanced, and rigorous view of the strategies, methodologies, and models of VR service for youth and young adults with disabilities in the United States.

The Center will contribute to ongoing academic analysis, policy development, and in-the-field practice, providing extensive information to educators, rehabilitation professionals, youth with disabilities and their families, advocates, researchers, and policy makers.

The Center will accomplish the following:

  1. Analyze the association between individual and agency level factors and outcomes of transition-age youth seeking VR services;
  2. Design, implement, and test a data analytic system to support VR agency learning and continuous improvement of service delivery to transitioning youth;
  3. Evaluate the efficacy and utility of a comprehensive VR-led transition program;
  4. Identify characteristics and strategies used by highly effective VR staff in order to develop and test a training resource for promoting highly effective performance;
  5. Analyze the role and impact of VR services in inclusive higher education for students with significant disabilities;
  6. Produce extensive publications of research findings;
  7. Compile, create, and disseminate information on the Center’s research that is accessible and useful to interested stakeholders; and
  8. Provide training and technical assistance in order to address gaps in knowledge and practice.

The Center is a partnership of TransCen, Inc., University of Maryland-College Park, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR) It is supported through a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, Administration for Community Living,U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.