Part of NCLD-Youth's goal of being one of the go-to places for connecting with youth with disabilities is connecting to other organizations and groups who work within the five areas of development, and there are a lot of them. We have divided them into the five areas learning, connecting, thriving, working, and leading as well as including separate listings for general youth development organizations and disability-specific organizations. Many of the disability specific organizations you will also find under the relevant area of development, but NCLD-Youth felt it would be additionally useful to have them available separately as well.
Learning
Make A World Of Difference: 50 Asset-building Activities To Help Teens Explore Diversity
Help teens explore a wide range of cultural competence with this fun, creative resource for raising diversity awareness. With a comprehensive approach that incorporates a variety of learning styles and skill levels, the three sections include personal-awareness activities for those with little exposure to diversity issues, a section for building cultural awareness around a particular topic, and practice activities for trying out new relationship-building methods.
Disability History Museum
This online museum houses a large library of digitized objects related to the history of disability in America. The easily searchsble database gives users access to thousands of digital photographs, articles and books related to disability.
Connecting
Let's Connect
This web site was created by young people with chronic illnesses for young people with chronic illnesses. It provides forums, links to information about conditions and programs, and Dear Connect where users can write to the site's creators, and more.
Disaboom
Living with a disability is easier when you’ve got the right information and resources. Disaboom provides people with disabilities the answers, solutions, and connections you need for living your life to the fullest.
Starbright World
Starbright World is an online social network where teens (ages 13 to 20) who have serious medical conditions, and siblings of seriously ill teens, can connect with each other via moderated chat rooms, games, bulletin boards, videos, and more.
Thriving
North Carolina’s Office on Disability and Health has a variety of useful resources:
Women Be Healthy
Women's Health Initiative include work focused on assessing the accessibility of Moble Mammography Centers and a reproductive health curriculum for women with DD.
Removing Barriers to Health Care
This site cover how to make medical environments welcoming to people with disabilities. A (PDF version is also available.
Partners in Health Care
This site address what questions/issues people with disabilities should bring up with their health care provider and what issues health care providers should raise/be aware of when they have a patient with a disability.
Youth Centers
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth)
NCWD/Youth assists state and local workforce development systems to better serve youth with disabilities. NCWD/Youth strives to ensure that youth with disabilities are provided full access to high quality services in integrated settings in order to maximize their opportunities for employment and independent living.
National Youth Employment Coalition
The National Youth Employment Coalition improves the effectiveness of organizations that seek to help youth become productive citizens through tracking, crafting, and influencing policy, setting and promoting quality standards, providing and supporting professional development, and building and increasing the capacity of organizations and programs.
National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET)
NCSET coordinates national resources, offers technical assistance, and disseminates information related to secondary education and transition for youth with disabilities in order to create opportunities for youth to achieve successful futures.
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY)
NICHCY serves as a central source for information on disabilities in infants, toddlers, children, and youth, IDEA, which is (the law authorizing special education), No Child Left Behind (as it relates to children with disabilities), and research-based information on effective educational practice.
TA Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health
The mission of the TA Partnership is to support communities in their efforts to successfully develop and implement local systems of care. They assist with developing a broad array of community-based, strength-based services to improve outcomes for children with serious emotional disturbance through Resource Specialists, Regional Technical Assistance Coordinators , Consultant Pool , Team Learning Centers , Meetings, Learning Opportunities, and Web site.
National Youth Leadership Network
The National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN) is dedicated to advancing the next generation of disability leaders through promoting leadership development, education, employment, independent living, and health and wellness among young leaders representing the diversity of race, ethnicity and disability in the United States.
Healthy and Ready to Work
Success in the classroom, within the community, and on the job requires that young people with special health care needs stay healthy. To stay healthy, young people need an understanding of their health and to participate in their health care decisions. Healthy and Ready to Work (HRTW) focuses on understanding systems, access to quality health care, and increasing the involvement of youth. It also includes provider preparation plus tools and resources to help youth to make more informed choices!
Kids As Self Advocates
Kids As Self Advocates (KASA) is an organization created by youth with disabilities for youth to educate society about issues concerning youth with a wide spectrum of disabilities and special healthcare needs on topics such as health care transition issues, education, employment, and others.
National Resource Center for Youth Services
Housed at the University of Oklahoma , the National Resource Center for Youth Services is tasked with enhancing the quality of life of our nation's youth and their families by improving the effectiveness of human services. For more then twenty-five years, NRCYS has been a resource for the youth services community, providing training and technical assistance to programs in Oklahoma and nationally.
National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice
EDJJ examines the overrepresentation of youth with disabilities at-risk for contact with the courts or already involved in the juvenile delinquency system. They provide professional development and technical assistance, conduct research and disseminate resources in three areas of national significance: prevention of school failure and delinquency, education and special education for detained and committed youth, and transition services for youth returning to schools and communities.
National Center on Youth Law (NCYL)
The National Center for Youth Law is a non-profit organization that uses the law to improve the lives of poor children. NCYL works to ensure these children have the resources, support, and opportunities they need for a healthy and productive future. Their work is focused on safety, stability, and well-being of abused and neglected children, quality health and mental health care, successful transitions to adulthood for at-risk youth, and financial stability for low-income families and children.
National Post-School Outcomes Center (NPSO)
The National PSO Center develops practical, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable strategies for collecting and using data to improve secondary, transition, and post-secondary outcomes for youth with disabilities and identifies state needs and provides technical assistance that will result in improved systems for post-school outcome data collection and use.
The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development
The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development connects thinkers and leaders of all ages to develop fresh ideas, forge new partnerships, and design strategies that engage young people and their communities. They use what they learn from community organizations to inform research, funding, and policy. Their mission is to connect people and ideas to create change by turning theoretical knowledge into practical know-how to help innovative programs become strong, sustainable ventures.
The Forum for Youth Investment
The Forum for Youth Investment (the Forum) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping communities and the nation make sure all young people are Ready by 21 T - ready for college, work and life. This goal requires that young people have the supports, opportunities and services needed to prosper and contribute where they live, learn, work, play and make a difference. The Forum provides youth and adult leaders with the information, technical assistance, training, network support and partnership opportunities needed to increase the quality and quantity of youth investment and youth involvement.
Other Centers
National Center on Workforce and Disability for Adult (NCWD/Adult)
NCWD/A provides training, technical assistance, policy analysis, and information to improve access for all in the workforce development system through designing access for all, accommodations & assistive technology, developing employer relationships, helping customers find jobs, job-related support, legal requirements & guidelines, partnerships & funding, disability policy, and marketing & outreach.
JAN (Job Accommodation Network)
JAN is a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) of the U.S. Department of Labor. JAN's mission is to facilitate the employment and retention of workers with disabilities by providing employers, employment providers, people with disabilities, their family members and other interested parties with information on job accommodations, self-employment and small business opportunities and related subjects.
Training and Technical Assistance for Providers (T-TAP)
T-TAP is a national technical assistance and training effort designed to increase the capacity of Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) and other community-based service providers that currently operate programs that result in segregated work outcomes and non-work options for people with disabilities in the "Special Minimum Wage" program established under section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 214(c).
Employer Assistance & Recruiting Network (EARN)
EARN is a free service that connects employers looking for quality employees with skilled job candidates. This web site is your one-stop source for disability employment information including recruiting services, tools and resources, employer success stories, and a business case for hiring people with disabilities.
Chronic Homelessness Employment Technical Assistance (CHETA)
CHETA a ims to strengthen customized employment and permanent housing services so that chronically homeless people with disabilities may live, work, and fully participate in their communities through projects in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Boston, and Portland.