Project Areas

"The thing that makes advocacy such a powerful movement is the inner committment, the passion of the people for good."

—Burton Blatt

Education

Teaching Tools
Teaching tools offers expert guidance on strategies to use and materials for making supports and provides teachers with strategies and resources to develop behavior support strategies for young children who are having challenging behavior in preschool settings. Faculty members with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities are available to provide workshops on how to use Teaching Tools. For more information, contact Bobbie Vaughn at vaughn@fmhi.usf.edu.

The Program-Wide PBS project
This was funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County to support the program-wide adoption of the teaching pyramid model for supporting the development of young children’s social competence and addressing challenging behavior. This project provides training and support to selected early childhood programs in Hillsborough County and monthly workshops open to the community. For information on the program, contact Rochelle Lentini at lentini@fmhi.usf.edu.

A Classroom-Wide Model for Promoting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Competence and Addressing Challenging Behavior is funded by the Institute for Education Science to study the potential efficacy of a classroom-wide model of behavioral support. This study is the first experimental evaluation of the use of a three-tiered prevention model for promoting the social competence of young children with disabilities. For more information on the program, contact Lise Fox at fox@fmhi.usf.edu.

Florida’s Positive Behavior Support Project
This Florida’s Positive Behavior Support Project provides training and technical assistance to increase the capacity of Florida school districts to implement evidence-based practices for supporting students with and without disabilities who are exhibiting problem behaviors. The FLPBS Project provides training to district and school personnel in school-wide, targeted group, classroom, and individual levels of PBS. Technical assistance activities include the dissemination of data, newsletters, effective practices and web-based resources.

The Technical Assistance Center for Positive Behavior Interventions and Support
This program is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. The overall goals of the Technical Assistance Center for Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) are to:

Identify and enhance knowledge about, and practical demonstration of, school-wide PBS practices, systems and outcomes along the three-tiered continuum (primary, secondary, tertiary); and
Develop, conduct and evaluate technical assistance and dissemination efforts that allow evidence-based practices to be implemented on a large scale with high durability and effectiveness.

The Social Inclusion Project
The Florida Center for Inclusive Communities is a partner with the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Florida Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, and Florida Inclusion Network and in the development success of the Social Inclusion Project (SIP). SIP focuses on creating social opportunities for students with and without developmental disabilities to interact in social activities that are already established in middle and high schools throughout Florida. If you would like to learn more about SIP or are interested in starting SIP at your school or in your district, contact Nila Benito at benito@fmhi.usf.edu. A revised project replication manual will be available for download from the new SIP website in early 2008.

Partners In Transition Training and Technical Assistance Project
This project is funded by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Inc. and is focused on the coordination and provision of training and technical assistance for school district based leadership teams. The project coordinates and/or provides training and technical assistance based on individual team needs as they relate to the implementation of research based effective practices in the areas of schooling, career preparation and work-based learning, youth leadership and development, family involvement and connecting activities. For more information, contact Lewis Persons at at lpersons@fmhi.usf.edu, Tara Thompson at tthompson@fmhi.usf.edu or visit the Partners In Transition website at http://www.partnersintransition.org.

Student’s Website on Employment & Transition
The www.FYITransition.com website, which is funded by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Inc., focuses on the development and updating of an interactive website addressing customized employment and effective transition issues for students, families, school personnel and the adult service system. The project collaborates with TRN, Inc. and TransCen, Inc. in the development and monitoring of the website. For more information, please contact Lewis Persons at lpersons@fmhi.usf.edu.

Positive Beginnings Training Modules
The Positive Beginnings training modules provide higher education faculty and professional development personnel with material that can be used to teach early educators, interventionists, and related service personnel about the use of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) with young children and their families. The content of the modules provides a comprehensive curriculum in Positive Behavior Support in 6, three-hour modules. These modules are available for purchase at minimal cost ($15). Faculty members with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities are available to provide “train-the-trainers” workshops on the adoption of the materials. For more information, contact Lise Fox at fox@fmhi.usf.edu.