VA-LEND – Celebrating 25 Years
This year, we are very excited to be celebrating 25 years of the Virginia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities program (Va-LEND). Va-LEND is an interdisciplinary training program that prepares students to provide family and person-centered care to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. In our history, we have trained over 800 professionals from 16 different academic disciplines across 6 VCU schools, as well as self-advocates and family members, who have gone on to provide the best possible care for children with neuordevelopmental disabilities in Virginia and beyond.
Participants in Va-LEND engage in a robust 1-2 year training program, featuring two didactic seminars that are co-instructed by faculty from 16 different disciplines, centering around advancement of the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Competencies. Va-LEND participants also participate in interdisciplinary clinical activities to understand how different disciplines contribute to the wellbeing of children with disabilities, promote better disability policy, complete an individual leadership project, and learn from the Family Mentorship Experience. The Family Mentorship Experience is often students’ favorite part of the program, as they get paired with a family that has a child with a neurodevelopmental disability to learn from the family’s lived experience for an entire year.
We are so proud of all that Va-LEND has accomplished in its quarter century of preparing graduate students, self-advocates, and family members and of all the ways that Va-LEND graduates have worked alongside people with disabilities to improve service and supports in Virginia. Building from our past, we also look ahead to a future full of both challenges and opportunities.
- As a virtual statewide program, we look forward to embracing accessible educational technologies and building statewide collaborative partnerships to serve trainees from anywhere in Virginia.
- As staffing shortages continue to challenge the maternal and child health workforce, we will deepen our connections with state and local partners to develop training that best prepares graduate students for long term service in the MCH workforce.
- As we become more aware of all the ways in which our service systems fail to reach many of our most vulnerable children and families with disabilities, we will expand our commitment to addressing systemic discrimination based on disability, particularly at the intersections of race, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.
Looking ahead to the next 25 years, we want to collaborate with you! If you’re a self-advocate consider joining us as a trainee! If you’re a family member, perhaps being a trainee or providing mentorship to graduate students would be right for you! If you’re a VCU graduate student, talk with your advisor about joining Va-LEND or get in touch with us to explore possibilities! If you work in a clinic anywhere in Virginia representing one of Va-LEND’s 16 disciplines, we’d love to talk about hosting clinical observations! Partnership and interdisciplinary teamwork is at the center of all we do at Va-LEND and we are always open to building new opportunities.
If you would like to learn more about Va-LEND please check out our website, and feel free to contact us at valend@vcu.edu, or feel free to contact Matthew Bogenschutz, Ph.D. director of Va-LEND, at mdbogenschut@vcu.edu.
Categories Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Students, VA-LEND