Director's Welcome

Lucille Zeph, CCIDS Director

Welcome to our website. The Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies is Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. CCIDS was established at UMaine in 1992 to bring together the resources of the community and the university to enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families in Maine and beyond.

Read the entire Director’s Welcome here.

CCIDS Early Childhood Team Updates and Expands Free Resources on Quality Inclusive Care and Education

Linda Labas, EC Coordinator

The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies’ early childhood team has updated and expanded a popular online series of early childhood resources: Growing Ideas Tipsheets and Resources for Guiding Early Childhood Practices. These free materials offer early childhood and school-age care professionals, parents, and guardians current information on a wide variety of topics in the form of tipsheets, resource pages, and for many topics, virtual toolkits. Nineteen tipsheets are now available in PDF online: categories include Foundations of Inclusive Early Care and Education, Social-Emotional Development, and Program Planning and Administration.

Read more about the updated “Growing Ideas Tipsheets and Resources for Guiding Early Childhood Practices” here.

New Hampshire LEND Program Expands Trainee Opportunities to Maine

The New Hampshire Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (NH-LEND) Program, a partnership of Dartmouth Medical School  and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Institute on Disability, has received a $4.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that will support the NH-LEND as it significantly expands trainee opportunities in NH and Maine. The funding increase also supports a new partnership with the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, to include up to five UMaine trainees annually. Stephen Gilson, Ph.D., Coordinator and Professor of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies and Social Work, serves as the Faculty Coordinator for the UMaine trainees. Read more about the LEND Program Expanding to Maine here.

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) Funds UNH/UMaine Family-Centered Transition Planning Model for Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD) and the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies recently collaborated on a two-year research project to demonstrate a family-centered transition planning model for students with autism spectrum disorders. UNH-IOD has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and will partner with CCIDS to develop a sustainable implementation process for embedding this method of independent transition planning into the existing service and funding systems on a long-term basis across multiple states. Read more about this UNH/UMaine collaboration here.

CCIDS Joins National Collaborative on Disability, Religion, and Inclusive Spiritual Supports

William Gaventa, M.Div.

For many people with disabilities and their families, faith communities can be a powerful source of natural community support and connection, as well as a doorway to other important outcomes in the areas of relationships, work, community living, recreation, and service. The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) is one of ten University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) that will serve as collaborating partners on a new initiative, the National Collaborative on Disability, Religion, and Inclusive Spiritual Supports. Read more about this National Collaborative initiative here.

Envisioning the Future: Allies in Self-Advocacy Report

The self-advocacy movement began internationally over 35 years ago and is a human and civil rights movement led by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. During the spring of 2011, thirty states, including Maine, were selected to participate in five regional summits hosted by Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD). The goals of these regional summits were to find out what is happening in the states on self-advocacy, to develop state team plans to strengthen self-advocacy, and to offer recommendations for actions and policy to strengthen self-advocacy at the national level.

Read more about this summit, and find links to view two reports generated from the summit, here.

CCIDS Website Highlights

• Early Childhood Opportunities (EChO) Scholars
• Growing Ideas Tipsheets
• Learning Ideas Tipsheets
• Maine Autism Spectrum Resource Center (Maine ASRC)
• Maine’s Expanding Inclusive Opportunities Initiative for Children, Families and Communities
• University of Maine Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (monthly presentations)
• Visual Supports Learning Links and Checklist