Participant Outcomes for The

NCDB Family Leadership Training Program

Participant Outcomes Broaden Vision Participants will gain insight into ways they can help improve the lives of children and families through their state deaf-blind project and in their local and state communities.

Expand Knowledge Participants will learn about programs, practices, and effective strategies they can use to help strengthen their own family, as well as other families and their communities.

Enhance Leadership Capacity Participants will increase their communication and partnership skills and expand their ability to plan and implement leadership strategies.

Enlarge Networks Participants will gain exposure to a variety of people, programs, and ideas which will be resources as they engage in leadership activities.

Increase Confidence Participants will build the self-confidence needed to advocate for their own child and family and take on challenging leadership paths.

(Family OPI’s #2, #8)

Systems Outcomes Increase Awareness The participants in the program, as they implement their leadership activities, will likely reach out to other family members, and local or state community members, to increase the awareness of deaf-blindness. This may result in the improvement of educational programs, services and funding for children and families.

Increase family involvement An increased awareness of deaf-blindness will result in an increased number of families participating in the activities of the deaf-blind project and family organization.

Enhance TA capacity A cadre of family members with leadership skills can assist your project to meet the needs of families in your state.

(System OPI’s #5, #6) Questions You May Have

Who would be a good candidate for the program? Strong candidates will demonstrate a variety of emerging leadership qualities and show evidence of even greater leadership potential.  Excited to be part of the program  Healthy situation in their personal and family life  Non-judgmental of other families  Capable of looking beyond their own life and family, and representing the greater population of deaf-blind  Believe that they can make a difference  Listen and learn from others  Inspire others  Innovative and can persevere against challenges  Willing to commit to all of the activities of the program (face-to-face, follow-up, individual project)

What is the Training Curriculum? NCDB and three state deaf-blind projects who have been providing family leadership training (Texas, Pennsylvania and Washington) collaborated to plan the key training topics and share resources and strategies. From this collaboration, NCDB has created a toolkit of training materials and strategies to address each of the topics, as well as several optional topics. Using these topics and training materials, NCDB will work with a deaf-blind project to customize the training to fit the needs of the project.

What is the design of the year-long training program? The number and type of training events will be customized to meet the needs of the deaf-blind project. There may be a combination of face-to-face trainings, web-based or teleconference training and support, and individual work. Some of the factors influencing the design of the training will be the project’s vision for the participants and the intensity of training needed to reach that vision, the amount of NCDB and project financial resources, and the geographical challenges of the state for meeting face-to-face.

A typical training program will likely include:  2-3 face-to-face trainings (1½ to 2-day)  Ongoing email and phone support from the project  Web-based or telephone training between face-to-face trainings  Individual homework between face-to-face trainings

How much will it cost my project to participate? Given the “typical training program” above, the approximate cost for the year would be between $3500 - $6000. NCDB support would come from the annual state technical assistance that is negotiated with each state on an Annual Plan. The NCDB fiscal support would pay for approximately half of the training program. A participating project would need to commit approximately $1750 - $3000 for the program. This could come from the project or from other resources the project is able to secure.

How can my project participate in the Family Leadership Training Program? One – three deaf-blind projects will be selected each year to participate in the Family Leadership Training Program. The application process will begin each year in September. Projects selected will begin identifying and selecting family participants in October and training will be scheduled to occur throughout the year.