This year, six Utah Regional Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (URLEND) students from Montana completed training in family-centered care for children and youth with special health care needs. URLEND students from five states (Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota) met weekly via video conference to learn how they can provide optimal services to children and adolescents with special health care needs. The Rural Institute is committed to being a ‘satellite’ partner of the URLEND program to educate professionals about the issues surrounding disability.

The URLEND graduates learned about the importance of the family-professional partnership, health equity across the lifespan, the use of evidence-based practice, interprofessional team building, historical and intergenerational trauma and resilience among Native Americans, and how to work within communities and systems.

Rural Institute Diversity Fellows Salena Beaumont Hill, MA and Helen Russette, MPH are teaching an online course in the fall: The Intersectionality of Disability, American Indians and Rurality.

Download the Course Flyer

The Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD), funded grants for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) to develop diversity fellowship programs.

The Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities (RIIC) was awarded a grant to support an American Indian graduate research assistant preparing to work in a human services field. The RIIC boosted the award amount and are thankful to have 2 participants in the Diversity Fellowship program.