UAA opens applications for advanced leadership training for disability employment managers

Employment program managers with developmental disability experience can now apply for an advanced leadership training run by the University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Human Development. The Alaska Department of Health circulated the invitation Wednesday in a Senior and Disabilities Services e-alert. The flyer included with the alert outlines program and application details. Questions go to [email protected].

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities are partners in the training. It is part of the Leadership Education in Employment for People with Developmental Disabilities initiative. The Trust is a state corporation whose beneficiaries include people with developmental disabilities.

The Center for Human Development is Alaska's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. The e-alert does not state how many managers the cohort will accept or when applications close.

Leadership training addresses only one piece of the employment gap. National disability policy reviews, including work by the National Council on Disability, attribute persistent unemployment and underemployment among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to systemic barriers. Those reviews cite low expectations and service systems that favor facility-based services over competitive integrated employment, barriers that manager training alone does not resolve.

AADD is a statewide association of community providers serving Alaskans with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The association says its mission is "to promote the growth and sustainability of community-based service providers through advocacy, training, and networking." For providers, stronger program manager leadership is one way to navigate workforce shortages, regulatory requirements and expectations for competitive integrated employment while maintaining service quality.