Investigator: David Mann (Mathematica)
MY-CIL will ground its activities in a review of the existing literature on promising or evidence-based transition practices for youth with disabilities, particularly those from minority backgrounds. The literature review will be among the center’s first activities and provide the foundation upon which to develop and refine the other activities to empower CILs to more effectively serve minority youth.
Investigators: Susan Dooha (CIDNY), Purvi Sevak (Mathematica), and Richard Petty (ILRU / GL1)
MY-CIL will conduct a survey of CILs that systematically collects information on their practices when reaching out to and serving youth with disabilities, particularly those from minority backgrounds. The survey will gather information to (1) systematically document the national landscape of current CIL practices in this area, (2) identify CILs that are implementing approaches they believe to be particularly effective, and (3) document challenges that CILs face in serving the target population and areas in which TA or staff training would be beneficial. The study findings will help fill the knowledge gap about CIL practices, enable us to compile existing promising CIL practices, and provide the critical CIL input needed to shape the MY-CIL research, dissemination, technical assistance, and training activities.
Investigators: Elizabeth Cardoso (Hunter), Todd Honeycutt (Mathematica), and Richard Petty (ILRU)
This research project will extend the information collected via the CIL survey to provide an in-depth examination of CIL practices and collaborations with community organizations intended to address the needs of youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds. The project involves two related activities: (1) an analysis of RSA-911 case service report data to identify state patterns in state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency connections with CILs to deliver services to youth with disabilities with minority backgrounds; and (2) information collection via interviews with staff of selected CILs with significant experience serving youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds, along with staff from selected other key organizations, including VR agencies, with whom these CILs collaborate. The information collected will provide specific knowledge about the collaborations that CILs have with other organizations and identify practices, lessons, facilitators, and challenges in serving the target population.
Investigators: Purvi Sevak (Mathematica) and Susan Dooha (CIDNY)
This project will analyze American Community Survey data to estimate the number, characteristics, and distribution of out-of-school youth with disabilities at the state and county levels, highlighting youth from minority backgrounds. The estimates are intended to support improved CIL outreach to the target population by mapping specific local areas where outreach might be beneficial. We will use the data to conduct a case study of the CIDNY catchment area, also incorporating data from several New York City sources that CIDNY could use to enhancing its outreach to youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds. The case study will serve as a model for other CILs to use in refining their outreach strategies for out-of-school minority youth.
In this multiyear research project, we will collaborate with CIL staff to explore, develop, implement, and test different short-term CIL service innovations to support successful transition outcomes for minority youth with disabilities. Together with the CILs, we will apply the new knowledge generated from the first four research projects to co-create and test interventions using a human-centered design approach known as Learn, Innovate, Improve. The evidence obtained through these tests will inform the larger intervention that we will develop and test under our final research project. Working closely with CILs will ensure that the innovations developed and tested reflect the insights and current capacity of CILs for serving youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds.
In this multiyear research project, we will design, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive intervention to improve CIL transition services for out-of-school youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds. We will use the evidence generated through all research projects and lessons learned during our training and technical assistance activities to develop the intervention. The intervention will synthesize promising findings to generate a CIL service model with the potential to increase (1) the number of out-of-school youth with disabilities from minority backgrounds served by participating CILs and (2) the number of youth making positive progress toward transition goals that include education or employment. A critical aspect of the intervention is obtaining rigorous evidence on its efficacy through an experimental evaluation. This evidence will ensure that the project’s results withstand scrutiny and provide the confidence that the service model improves outcomes for the target population. A final product of this project will be a manualized model intervention based on the best available evidence that CILs can implement to engage and serve minority youth with disabilities.