Center Activities

State Leaders Innovation Institute (SLII) to Expand Employment for Adults with Disabilities. In early 2008, the NTAR Leadership Center competitively selected three states for participation in an intensive 15-month Leadership Institute. The NTAR Leadership Center is devoting resources to assisting the first states in the pilot SLII - Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota - to become the nation's leading examples for pioneering models to promote employment for adults with disabilities by enhancing partnerships with statewide workforce development and economic development efforts.  The NTAR Leadership Center will provide research, technical assistance, and leadership training geared to each state's specific challenges.

State Peer Leaders Network (SPLN). The State Peer Leaders Network facilitates information exchange, continuous learning, and the sharing of promising practices and strategies for a select group of state policymakers interested in putting these practices to work. Technical assistance as well as access to topical teleconferences, webinars, and virtual seminars is available free of charge through the NTAR Leadership Center. Current state members in the SPLN are: Alaska, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.

Virtual Leadership Institute (VLI). Recognizing the importance of leadership development to promoting systems change, a virtual leadership institute is being offered to an audience of government and public- and private-sector leaders who are members of the SPLN through a series of five webinars. The VLI will assist SPLN participants in setting active goals and enhancing organizational performance in order to improve outcomes for individuals with disabilities along with building a network of peers. Current state members in the VLI are: Alaska, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.

Knowledge Development and Dissemination. The NTAR Leadership Center will conduct research driven by the needs of policymakers and practitioners, including topical issue briefs and a national study of promising demand-driven workforce practices and strategies to move adults with disabilities into employment.

Knowledge Exchange. The NTAR Leadership Center website serves as a vehicle for knowledge exchange and information sharing, and provides a wide array of users with information, research, and learning tools needed to design policies and partnerships that strengthen state and local leadership efforts to improve the employment and economic self-sufficiency of people with disabilities.