The College Matters Florida project is launching a multi-media educational awareness campaign beginning in January 2022. This campaign will spread the message that inclusive postsecondary education is a viable and transformative experience for transitioning youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Florida.
This multi-media awareness campaign represents the fourth year of work funded by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council. The campaign is produced by staff from Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion in partnership with staff from the University of South Florida, St. Petersberg, and in collaboration with the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities at the University of Central Florida.
The effort builds upon the projects previous efforts including:
- a statewide needs assessment and the development of a coalition of invested stakeholders,
- the creation of two on-line training modules, (one emphasizing transition strategies towards postsecondary education and one that highlights secondary orientation and transition strategies to facilitate student success),
- a five-part speaker series, incorporating presentations from a range of national experts, and
- a collection of promising practices illustrating innovation in promoting postsecondary education for students with IDD throughout Florida.
The College Matters Florida educational awareness campaign will highlight the benefits of going to college that students with IDD experience. The campaign is designed to target a range of audiences to grow the number of college options for students with IDD across the state, as well as the number of youth with IDD accessing those options.
Target audiences include, but are not limited to, students with IDD and their families, administrators, and other personnel from institutions of higher education, K-12 personnel such as transition specialists, special educators and guidance counselors, and state level decision-makers.
If you would like to become a College Matters Florida partner to help distribute their awareness materials, fill out a short survey and someone will contact you.
For more information about this project, please contact Jaimie Timmons at jaimie.timmons@umb.edu or Sheila Johnson at sheila.johnson@umb.edu.