Director’s Message
It is amazing and gratifying that the UH-CDS is celebrating 25 years of contributions as a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) in advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change. We successfully submitted our core grant application (2018-2023) and will continue to serve our priority areas: Education and Early Intervention, Employment, and Community Living. Activities will continue to center on training interdisciplinary personnel, working to change systems to be more responsive in supporting persons with disabilities in their communities, and conducting research to encourage adoption of evidence-based practices through extensive dissemination across the state, region, and nation. The intended outcome of these activities will be the acquisition of “new skills, knowledge, attitudes, and awareness to improve services, supports, and accommodations that provide persons with diverse abilities the opportunities to live self-determined lives fully included in their communities.”
It has been a busy and productive year across the center. Read some highlights
With its enthusiastic faculty and staff, the CDS looks forward to thriving in the coming years to creatively and responsively serve the needs of people with disabilities in Hawai‘i and the Pacific Basin as a University Center of Excellence. With challenges being faced by ours and other institutions of higher education, our talented faculty and staff will work to diversify our funding portfolio and continue to be competitively successful in securing funding for research, training, and community-based projects.
Thank you.
Patricia Morrissey, Ph.D.
Director
Center on Disability Studies
Introduction
The Center on Disability Studies (CDS), College of Education, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa is celebrating its 30th year. This past year CDS continued its commitment to support people with disabilities and their families through research, training, and service– disseminating the results of its work to consumers, professionals, students, and policymakers. Stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, varied disability interests, perspectives, and ages shape the priorities we addressed.
Our overarching mission is to explore with others how to make all aspects of community living accessible to individuals with disabilities. In the pursuit of this outcome, with stakeholder input, we partner with state and regional organizations and agencies to evaluate the status of community living opportunities and options and identify where improvement is needed. CDS designs and offers training activities and undertakes community-based demonstrations to build local capacity to provide quality services to individuals with disabilities. Each of our projects has strong evaluation and dissemination components. Some highlights are provided below.
New Funding
New Grants and Contracts, and Grant Continuation and Contract Extension Activity – 2017-2018
Number of Proposals for Grants & Contracts Submitted.
Number of new proposals funded as of August, 2018.
Number of funding decisions pending/not known.
Projects and Outcomes
CDS projects promote diverse abilities across the lifespan through interdisciplinary training, research, and service.
Staffing
CDS is has excellent interdisciplinary faculty and staff from fields like education, law, social work, psychology, counseling, political science to support grants and contract implementation. 36 faculty, 17 professional staff, 5 graduate assistants, 6 students, 41 temporary hires, and 8 affiliated faculty are involved in active grant writing to address community needs and sustain funding.
CDS Partners
CDS Partners with Over 190 State, Local and International organizations
The CDS faculty and staff participate in numerous local and national disability-related groups providing leadership in non-profit and community organizations. Faculty and staff also participate in disability related groups, providing an opportunity to provide leadership and be the voice of individuals with disability in these organizations.
Future Plans
CDS has established a Business Development Committee to provide seed money to CDS faculty and staff with innovative ideas. We encourage junior faculty to submit ideas to the committee to promote and mentor their entrepreneurial spirit. CDS faculty and staff are maintaining strong relationships with state agencies and are reaching out to Foundations in an effort to diversify the CDS funding portfolio. CDS mentors young staff by including them in grant writing teams, and increases their roles and responsibilities to stretch abilities and build new strengths. And finally, CDS continues to develop dynamic websites that serve as a model for accessibility.