In This Issue

Fall/Winter 2005
Volume 1 • Issue 2

Professors Receive
Allan Meyers Award

Director’s Corner

UM Students Receive
National Award

Center Updates Acronym

Prevention Center
of Excellence

$2.9M Reading Program Grant

Director Named
AUCD President

New Leadership for CAC

Search Tool Facilitates
Access to MEC Training

Grant to Increase Access
to Volunteer Opportunities

Intervention Methods
Subject of Conference

Screening Instrument
Under Development

Co-Instructional Model
Developed by CCIDS

Center Staff Star in
New Video

Guest Column:
CAC Member Tours
South Africa

Brain Research Informs
Best Practice

Partnership for EC
Health Formed

Presentations & Publications

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Lenny Berry

Center Staff Star in New Video

Ask Lenny Berry how it feels to be a star and he’ll just laugh. A project specialist with The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS), Berry, is one of a dozen self-advocates and family members working with the University of Southern Maine Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service to develop and refine training materials proposed for use with the Independence Plus waiver program.

The Muskie School, in collaboration with the Work Group for Community-Based Living; Speaking Up for Us of Maine (SUFU); The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies; the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services; Serving Teams and Young Adults with Intellectual and Emotional Disabilities (STRIVE); and the Maine Association of Community Service Providers, is developing information, training materials, and other tools for persons with intellectual disabilities and autism and their family members, to support participation in the Independence Plus waiver program. The proposed waiver program will offer consumers the choice of directing their own services and provide training to help consumers understand their options and responsibilities.

Berry, along with CCIDS Research Associate Bonnie Robinson, recently starred in a training video demonstrating interviewing techniques for self-advocates interested in hiring their own support staff. The video, scripted by self-advocates Judy Diemer and Heidi Seger, is one of several products created by Independence Plus collaboration, using the co-instructional model originally developed by CCIDS.

“The [Independence Plus] project is using the insights of people with developmental disabilities to make the training materials relevant to their needs,” according to Robinson. Consumers are involved in all aspects of material development including selecting topics for trainings, authoring content, and developing alternative delivery formats to meet the needs of a broad range of learning styles.

Berry said his role in the project is important because his work “helps people feel comfortable…controlling their lives.”

The accessible video entitled, Sample Interview: Hiring Staff, was filmed, edited, and captioned at the offices of CCIDS and features Berry demonstrating how to conduct an interview of a candidate applying for a support staff position. The video was presented as part of two workshops offered at the 2005 Annual SUFU conference, “Dreams” staged at the Augusta Civic Center in October. According to Robinson, feedback from conference participants will be evaluated used to expand, enhance, and improve proposed training materials.

— Kimberly Sawtelle