From Big Sky to Big City: Learning and Growing in Charlotte
From Big Sky to Big City: Learning and Growing in Charlotte
As part of my work for The Rural Institute, I traveled to North Carolina in May to represent "Team Montana" at the NTACT:C Capacity Building Institute. The focus of this institute was to help state interagency teams improve the services, opportunities, and adult outcomes for young people with disabilities.
The turnout was impressive! Forty-five states sent teams ranging from 2 to 8 individuals. These teams brought together important partners in post-secondary transition planning including special educators, job training programs, parent centers, universities, and the young people themselves. We represented Montana as a team of four, with members apart from me representing Vocational Rehabilitation and Blind Services, The Montana Empowerment Center, and The Office of Public Instruction.
Team Montana worked through a structured process to develop goals to improve practice and outcomes for youth with disabilities in our state. Between work meetings, we took advantage of ongoing presentations from 20 other states that shared their success stories – things they tried that actually worked well for young people with disabilities. This was super helpful because we could learn from what other states had already figured out, allowing us to see what's possible and potentially adapt some of their ideas for Montana.
Other highlights included the morning keynotes, where we heard directly from the Youth Engagement Transition Initiative (a team of young leaders with disabilities who speak from experience). They offered state teams practical ideas on how to make sure transition efforts truly reflect the needs and desires of the young people they are designed to serve.
In addition to all the work spent "building capacity", our team also found a little time in the evening to hop on the light rail and explore Charlotte. We took the light rail to a food truck mall where we had our pick of dishes from all around the world. After that, we ventured downtown to a historic cemetery dating back to the 1770’s. It was a unique experience to stand among the broken gravestones and magnolia trees; a piece of the past nestled within the busy energy of a modern city. I’ll never forget it!