The Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities (MCDD) is one of four University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service (UCEDD) selected to receive on-site technical assistance and consultation for the Embedding Cultural Diversity and Cultural and Linguistic Competence project, known as the Embedding Project.
Three faculty members of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development provided technical assistance and consultation to Kennedy Krieger Institute faculty members, staff members and trainees on September 24, 25 and 26. The Embedding Project is designed to research, develop and disseminate a set of resources for the national network of UCEDDs and the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, and to build their capacity to embed cultural diversity and cultural and linguistic competence (CLC) into their curricula and training activities.
PHOTO: Back row, left to right: Mark Furst, Lana Warren, Harolyn Belcher, Mary Coster, Trish Shepley, Melanie-Pinkett Davis, Janice Laux, Navesa Walker, Maureen van Stone, Chris Joseph, Paula Reber, Elisa Delia, Mary Leppert, Bruce Shapiro, Donna Raborg, Jackie Stone, Jennifer Crockett and Jonathan Schmidt. Front row, left to right: Wendy Jones, Tawara Goode, Vivian Jackson and Mirian Ofonedu.
The first day of technical assistance and consultation focused on developing a vision for MCDD as a culturally and linguistically competent organization. Participants included all MCDD faculty members, staff members and trainees, as well as representatives from Kennedy Krieger’s senior administration, and from our sister organizations, the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council and Disability Rights Maryland.
The morning of the second day focused on aligning organizational policy with the values of CLC, with input from Kennedy Krieger’s equity, diversity and inclusion workgroup. That afternoon, all clinical directors were introduced to tools for embedding CLC and related themes into curricula, training activities and research.
The final day included small group discussions with members of the Institute’s Ethics Program, selected members of senior management and the chair of MCDD’s Community Advisory Council. It also included a combination of didactic and interactive multi-media presentations and activities to orient trainees to CLC, and to the implications that CLC has on their work with children and their families and communities.
Sessions were led by Tawara Goode, MA, director of Georgetown University’s UCEDD and the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development’s National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC), along with Wendy Jones, MEd, MSW, and Vivian Jackson, PhD, both faculty members of NCCC.
The other three UCEDDs selected to receive on-site technical assistance and consultation include those in Alaska, Louisiana and New Mexico.
