Collaborative on Faith and Disability
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 many University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) that will serve as collaborating partners on a new initiative, the Collaborative on Faith and Disability.
Collaborative activities include developing and providing coordinated training, technical assistance, research, and product development in the area of inclusive spiritual supports to people with disabilities and their families, local seminaries and divinity schools, university programs, clergy, congregations, and service providers. Please visit the Collaborative’s Upcoming Events page for the latest information on upcoming webinars, conferences and the annual Summer Institute on Theology and Disability.
Selected Resources:
Putting Faith to Work: The Call and Opportunity for Faith Communities to Transform the Lives of People with Disabilities and their Communities (Gaventa, Allen, Kleinert & Carter, 2017).
Collaborative Director/Coordinator:
William Gaventa, M.Div.
bill.gaventa@gmail.com
Collaborative Associate Director/Coordinator:
Erik Carter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Special Education
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
416C Magnolia Circle
Nashville, TN 37203
erik.carter@vanderbilt.edu
Collaborative Dissemination Coordinator:
Courtney Evans Taylor, M.Div.
Associate Director of Communications and Dissemination
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
237 One Magnolia Circle
Nashville, TN 37203
courtney.taylor@vanderbilt.edu
Collaborative Contact (at UMaine):
Sandra Horne, M.A., M.A.
Coordinator for Community Engagement
University of Maine
Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies
5717 Corbett Hall, Room 228
Orono, ME 04469-5717
207.581.1236
800.203.6957
TTY users call Maine Relay 711
sandra.horne@maine.edu
Collaborating Partners:
- Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University
- Center on Disability and Community Inclusion, University of Vermont
- Developmental Disabilities Institute, Wayne State University
- Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities
- Georgia State University Center for Leadership in Disability
- Institute on Development and Disability, Oregon Health & Science University
- Institute on Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois
- JFK Partners, University of Colorado
- Texas Center for Disability Studies
- University of Connecticut A.J. Pappanikou Center
- University of Kentucky Human Development Institute
- University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies
- University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration
- University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC) Institute for Human Development
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities
- Virginia Commonwealth University Partnership for People with Disabilities