FYI, the Institute on Community Integration Staff Newsletter

July 2015

Eight Big Things ICI Did This Past Year

Every July the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) sends a progress report to the federal government summarizing our work and impact in the world during the past 12 months. Out of the many pages of activities submitted this year we’ve pulled out eight activities that, together, reflect some of the depth and breadth of “big things” going on at ICI every day:

  1. Began a four-year, $1.8 million project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to identify the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability among 8-year-old children in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. The project adds ICI as a new site in the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.

  2. Established the International Institute on Progress Monitoring in partnership with Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University in Siberia. The new institute will develop and implement progress monitoring tools and strategies for use with Russian elementary and secondary students who have significant cognitive disabilities.

  3. Collaborated with the Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities to mark the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by publishing, Impact: Feature Issue on the ADA and People with Intellectual, Developmental and Other Disabilities. As a companion to the Impact issue, over 40 video clips of interviews with individuals with disabilities talking about the role of the ADA in their lives were created and posted on the Self Advocacy Online Web site.

  4. Released a new, online interactive series titled, Data Analytics by the Institute’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). This series of reports presents data and data analysis from NCEO using a data visualization format that allows users to create, view, and compare customized reports. NCEO additionally published 14 research-based reports and briefs on students with disabilities in large-scale assessments and accountability systems.

  5. Launched the Systems Improvement Group, a consulting service for education and human service systems improvement nationwide. Among services offered are program evaluation, technical assistance, stakeholder facilitation, leadership development, and data analysis and visualization.

  6. Provided training for over 1,300 educators and others coast-to-coast in implementation of the Check & Connect school engagement model developed at ICI for use with K-12 students at risk for disconnecting from school and dropping out (http://checkandconnect.umn.edu/). Check & Connect celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, marking the occasion with its first national conference in October 2015.

  7. Provided training in person-centered thinking to over 2,400 professionals throughout Minnesota as part of the Minnesota DHS Systems Change and Capacity Building project of the Institute's Research and Training Center on Community Living. The project conducts research, training, and technical assistance activities that enhance Minnesota's capacity to support community living for individuals with disabilities and/or mental illness.

  8. Sponsored the Minnesota Autism Initiative Inaugural Conference: A Day with the Experts, a continuing education event that introduced recent research in Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities to 200 representatives of research, practitioner, provider and family communities in the region. The Institute's MN LEND program provided funding for the event as part of its community outreach.