Alliance for Inclusion Advancement Hawai‘i

The Center on Disability Studies was contracted with the Tarjan Center at the University of California at Los Angeles to implement the Hawai’i portion of a three-year, three state collaborative project called the Alliance for Inclusion Advancement. 

The project’s overall goal is to increase the number of youth over 14, adults and veterans with disabilities to become involved in community volunteer service opportunities.

The project’s approach is to capitalize on existing resources, rather than initiating new program, by linking key stakeholders from within disability and volunteer service sectors to develop common service inclusion efforts. Youth over 14, veterans and adults with disabilities will be offered opportunities to serve based on their interests and skills. Alternative time commitments, along a continuum from several hours to full time will be available. The project will also provide leadership skill development. The collaborators believe these activities will result in a replicable model.

Locally, over the course of the funding period, CDS has:

• Established three Local Inclusion Network Collaboratives (LINC’s) to build the capacity of service programs and disability organizations to entice people with disabilities in service. 
• Facilitated 19 match-making meeting between national service programs and local disability organizations to place individuals with disabilities in service opportunities.
• Engaged 1046 adults, veterans and youth over 14 with disabilities in 28,877 hours of volunteer service in national and community service positions in episodic and ongoing calendar projects and special events, for example Martin Luther King Day of Service or National Youth Service Day.
• Engaged 3,672 volunteers without disabilities in 4,961 hours of volunteer service in national and community service positions in episodic and ongoing calendar projects and special events, for example Martin Luther King Day of Service or National Youth Service Day.
• Improved accessibility of 63 service programs.
• Developed an evaluation system for the project.
• Maintained and updated on an ongoing basis a website that provides information about the Alliance in Hawaii – a description of its work and resources.
• Developed a newsletter, “Paying It Forward” describing project activities and the AIA-HI Toolkit.
• Contributed to the successful implementation of the May 2009 Hawaii Youth Leadership Academy with 80 attendees.

Principal Investigator: Steven Brown

Partners: 

• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Miami