Our core funding, provided by a grant from the Administration on Community Living, supports activities focused on building the capacity of Arkansans to create more inclusive communities. We also receive funding from other grants and contracts to carry out a wide variety of projects. The common thread of our projects is disability, access and inclusion. Current projects can be divided into the following categories. Each link below will take you that that section.
Projects on this page:
Core Funding
Administration on Developmental Disabilities Core Grant
This serves as the administrative grant that establishes Partners for Inclusive Communities as the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research & Service (UCEDD) for Arkansas. It provides a wide range of services on varied topics including interdisciplinary pre-service training, community education and training, research, and information dissemination.
Interdisciplinary Training
Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND)
The LEND grant is an interdisciplinary training project that educates future leaders in the disability- and health-related fields. LEND trains approximately 30 trainees from five different universities and roughly 15 different professions, including clinical professions, public health professions, and self- and family advocacy. LEND trainees receive unique opportunities to experience specialty clinics, advocacy efforts, innovative research, and didactic lectures throughout the school year (Aug-May).
Children and Families
Arkansas Autism Partnership
The Arkansas Autism Partnership (AAP) is the Medicaid waiver program for young children with autism between the ages of 18 months and 8 years (must be accepted and begin the program before the fifth birthday to be eligible). The program provides intensive (20-25 hours per week) intervention in the natural environments where children have skills development/ behavioral needs. Most services are delivered in the home during evenings and weekends to ensure the parent is part of the team.
Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center
The Arkansas Autism Resource Outreach Center (AAROC) is a non-profit organization started by parents to provide hope, direction and support to families who have a child with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This mission is accomplished through the provision of care coordination, training, technical assistance, and support for parents whose children have been newly diagnosed or who need assistance as they move through life.
Children and Family Support
The Arkansas Department of Human Services Children and Family Support Project aims to increase crisis prevention, identification, intervention, and education for Arkansans that are at risk for emotional dysregulation. This project has three major aims: 1) development of a stabilization program to promote understanding and support for children experiencing dysregulation in the schools, 2) creation of intensive in-home supports for children going through significant changes in life, and 3) expansion of screening, diagnostic, and intervention services for individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Web: Available soon.
Identification, Treatment and Education of Behavioral Health Conditions Associated with PSE
Funded by Blue and You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas, this project will focus on the prevention, education, and identification of individuals who had prenatal substance exposure (PSE) to drugs and/or alcohol. The study will allow researchers to conduct activities for prevention, identification, and training for people with PSE in Arkansas. The goal is to develop a sustainable pilot program designed to identify and train others on the behavioral health conditions associated with PSE.
Web: Available soon.
Early Childhood Education
Teaming for Early Childhood Inclusion
The Teaming for Early Childhood Inclusion (TECI) project is designed to build capacity within the early childhood education network for successful inclusion of children with disabilities. This is accomplished through training and on-site coaching for staff in both facility-based and home-based childcare locations. Training topics include the research and legal support for inclusion, understanding autism spectrum disorders, sensory processing, positive behavior supports, fetal alcohol disorder, autism services and resources.
Welcome the Children
The goal of Welcome the Children is to provide early childhood professionals with quality training, coaching and resources for supportive approaches to cultural diversity, inclusion of children with disabilities, and communication. This training also includes the Arkansas Bilingual Interpreter Credential in Education (ABICE), a 40-hour training course for adults who are fluent in English and another oral language and who provide interpretation for meetings between educators and families of children birth through 12th grade. This state credential is recognized by both early childhood and K-12 education.
ADA Education
Southwest ADA Center – Regional Affiliate, Arkansas
The purpose of this project is to assist businesses and agencies in creating more accessible environments and complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability rights laws. This is accomplished through the provision of training, technical assistance and educational resources.
Digital and Technology Accessibility
Digital Access Solutions
When organizations need extra support to meet their digital access goals, we offer support on a contractual basis. This includes assisting with accessibility strategies and workflows, checking documents for accessibility, website accessibility reviews, and staff development.
Web: Coming Soon.
Enhancing Access to Digital Health Technologies
The purpose of this project is to increase the capacity of Arkansas healthcare and related providers to deliver more accessible services and to provide resources and support to older and disabled Arkansans in accessing healthcare services using technology. Project staff provide training and technical assistance and develop online resources on a variety of topics related to digital health.
Web: Available soon.
Increasing Digital Access in Arkansas
The purpose of this project is to increase the capacity of Arkansas businesses and organizations to design more accessible digital environments which result in improved access for people who use assistive technology and others. Project staff provide training and technical assistance and develop online resources on a variety of topics related to digital access.
Web: Coming soon.
Health Equity
Arkansas Disability and Health
The Arkansas Disability and Health Program was one of 19 state projects funded by the National Center on Birth Defects and Disabilities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. The goals of this project are to promote good health of Arkansans with disabilities, to increase access to health care for persons with disabilities and to identify interventions to reduce or eliminate secondary conditions. Resources from this project continue to be available.
COVID-19 Projects
Our COVID-19 projects have allowed Partners to focus on removing barriers to remote communication reducing isolation, and improving access to accurate information. We have also been able to address post-pandemic workforce issues in caregiving professions, and assist agencies in developing strategies for to strengthen their ability to provide support to individuals with disabilities living in the community. We developed and offered plain language fact sheets informing people about symptoms of Flu, RSV and Covid.
Language Access
Arkansas Bilingual Interpreter Credential in Education
The Arkansas Bilingual Interpreter Credential in Education (ABICE) is a 40-hour professional credential training program for bilingual adults who provide oral language interpretation in educational settings that serve children from birth through 12th grade. The training is provided through the Welcome the Children project and the credential is recognized by the AR Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
Marshallese Interpreting for Community Inclusion
The goal of Marshallese Interpreting for Community Inclusion (MICI) is to reduce communication barriers to accessing disability supports and services in the Arkansas Marshallese community by training interpreters and providing information in culturally and linguistically appropriate methods. Partners collaborates with the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI) and SeSo, Inc. on project activities.
Learn more about Marshallese Interpreting for Community Inclusion
Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention
Arkansas Victim Advocacy Academy
The mission of the Arkansas Victim Assistance Academy (AVAA) is to provide comprehensive training to Arkansas professionals who routinely serve victims of crime. AVAA is a collaboration between UA Partners, the Crime Victims’ Assistance Association of Arkansas and representatives of 12 additional organizations who serve as the steering committee. Each year these organizations collaborate to provide a foundational academy as well as opportunities for more advanced learning.
Crime Victims with Disabilities
The purpose of this project is to increase access to victim assistance services for people with disabilities and Deaf people who are victims of violence and other crimes. Project staff serve victims through co-advocacy with other organizations, provide technical assistance and training, and coordinate a statewide multidisciplinary team of professionals committed to this work. This project includes the work of C3 which focuses on trauma and the Deaf community.
Roadmap Initiative
The purpose of this project is to improve services provided to individuals over the age of 60 who are victims of abuse or financial exploitation. Strategies include improving collaboration between victim service providers and programs that serve older Arkansans; providing information to service providers on being trauma-informed, accessible and culturally responsive; and increasing access to information on abuse and exploitation.
Safety and Violence Prevention
The overall goal of this project is to promote efforts that help prevent the critical problem of rape and sexual assault among people with disabilities. This is accomplished through the provision of training and capacity building. Training and materials are provided that challenge historical views of disability and promote allyship with the disability community.
Workforce Development
Positive Behavior Support Training
This project is a fee-for-service project that provides training and certification for staff of community-based disability provider agencies who want to be able to develop behavior plans for the individuals they serve and bill Medicaid for the plan development. The certification requires that participants complete the 5-day training, pass a written test, and submit a plan that is approved by project staff.
Web: Available soon.
Public Health Workforce Project
In this project, we are creating a Disability Support Provider (DSP) Employment Toolkit. The team researched ways to address the workforce shortage and pulled resources together in our toolkit to be used by Developmental Disability (DD) providers in Arkansas to address recruitment and retention of DSPs.
Web: To be posted soon