LEND: TRAINING the next generation of leaders in the field of Developmental Disabilities
The Rose F. Kennedy Center is home to one of the 60 Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) programs throughout the country. The RFK LEND, with its partners, has a 60-year history as a leader in professional and family training and care for children/youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and related disabilities across the region. It is an interprofessional leadership training program federally funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Autism CARES Act, and it is based at the RFK Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (RFK CERC) of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein.
The RFK LEND’s mission is to improve the quality of care for children, youth and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities (DD) by training graduate-level health and related professionals to become leaders working with and on behalf of children with disabilities and their families, to meet their needs across the lifespan, and improve health and functional outcomes. In addition to graduate students, trainees also include family trainees who are parents of children with disabilities and self-advocates.
Core Objectives:
- Increasing the workforce of health and related professionals trained to screen, diagnose and provide evidence-based interventions for children, youth and adults with autism/DD
- The provision of high-quality interdisciplinary graduate-level education that emphasizes the integration of services supported by state and local agencies, organizations, private providers and communities
- Advancing the knowledge and skills of health professionals to improve healthcare delivery systems for children with DD
- Engagement in the national network of LEND programs, to foster collaboration, coordinate program efforts, disseminate research to the field and provide peer mentorship opportunities
- Training in making science- and evidence-based judgments, through an understanding of research methodology, statistics and knowledge about current research issues in the field
- Development and completion of a research project, with production of a report that can be published in an appropriate peer-reviewed journal and presented at the RFK LEND and, if possible, at national meetings