Special Needs

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About

Information for

Programs

Publications

Regulations

Partners

Dare to Dream Initiative

Dare to Dream (D2D) is a learning pathway for youth with special healthcare needs and diverse learners in grade 8 to age 21. The D2D Initiative focuses on creating and providing resources and activities to assist youth in developing and leading healthy lives as they move through transitional periods.

D2D 2.0 Youth Leadership Conference

The Rhode Island Department of Health, in collaboration with State partners including the Office of Rehabilitation Services and Rhode Island Department of Education, have held an annual D2D youth leadership conference for more than ten years. In May 2019, RIDOH is collaborating with these partners to build on this momentum and facilitate a D2D 2.0 Youth Conference, which will provide youth with opportunities to explore individualized strengths that support social and emotional health.

Objectives:

  • Focus on social and emotional health learning areas, by introducing programming that will serve as ongoing foundations of knowledge and skill building.
  • Provide a conference design that includes participatory pre-work to inform event-day programming and tailor activities to individualized abilities.
  • Engage 500 youth with special healthcare needs and diverse learners by providing a fun, rich learning experience and creating leadership frameworks participants can pull from before, during, and after the conference.

Who Should Attend?

  • Youth with Special Health Care Needs: Youth who have or are at increased risk for chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotion conditions and who also require health and related services of the type of amount beyond that required by youth generally.
  • Diverse Learners: Learners who are racially, ethnically, culturally, economically, and/or linguistically diverse, and/or learners who learn differently from the majority.

Benefits to Participating

The D2D2.0 Youth Conference:

  • Focuses on social and emotional learning – a topic that we can all improve our understanding of!
  • Offers the opportunity to engage with leadership experts – from community specialists to professional youth leadership organizations.
  • Includes a continuum of learning opportunities, including pre-work, event-day activities, and post-event reflection.
  • Responds to requests from young people for opportunities to explore their social and emotional health.
  • Is youth focused, and in many ways, youth led. The majority of participants are youth, youth advocates, and youth-minded individuals.
  • Pushes the boundaries of expectation, providing participants with concrete tools to nurture their unique strengths.
  • Provides the opportunity to enjoy the company of diverse learners, have fun, network, and be inspired, creative, and challenged.
  • Focuses on advancing the needs of youth with special health care needs, and diverse learners – benefiting young people and champions for youth.
  • Supports efforts to reduce stigma around mental health, and responds to feedback from young people to normalize support seeking through education.
  • Offers parents and teachers the opportunity to get insight into the personal strengths of youth, and better assist in their transitional periods.