ANNOUNCEMENT

National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth

To successfully make the transition from school to adult life and the world of work, adolescents and young adults need guidance and encouragement from caring, supportive adults. The best decisions and choices made by transitioning youth are based on sound information, including appropriate assessments that focus on the talents, knowledge, skills, interests, values, and aptitudes of each individual. The Career Planning Begins with Assessment: A Guide for Professionals Serving Youth with Educational and Career Development Challenges serves as a resource for multiple audiences within the workforce development system dealing with these issues. The Guide is one of the many products being developed by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth), which assists state and local workforce development systems to better serve youth with disabilities.

Youth service practitioners will find information on selecting career-related assessments, determining when to refer youth for additional assessment, and additional issues such as accommodations, legal issues, and ethical considerations. Administrators and policymakers will find information on developing practical and effective policies, collaboration among programs, and interagency assessment systems. Ultimately, it is intended to help arm youth, as well as those who serve them, with as much information as possible.

This guide can be useful in developing:

• practical and effective policies,
• greater collaboration among programs, and
• interagency assessment systems.

NCWD/Youth, created in late 2001, is composed of partners with expertise in disability, education, employment, and workforce development issues. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), the NCWD/Youth is housed at IEL. Copies of the Guide are available for free by download in either PDF or HTML formats from the NCWD Web site, http://www.ncwd-youth.info/resources_&_Publications/assessment.html, or in hard copy or CD-ROM by e-mailing, faxing, or writing Dora Shick, Project Associate, Institute for Educational Leadership, 4455 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 310, Washington, DC,20008, shickd@iel.org, or 202-872-4050 (fax).