NYLN History

1997 – The first National Conference for Youth with Disabilities was held in Washington DC lead by the Social Security Administration. Different federal agencies were represented but a heavy emphasis was placed on Social Security and its programs.

1998 – A second conference was held in which a few young people who had participated in the first conference were asked to assist in the development of the conference program. The conference program still largely focused on youth fitting in the adult service system.

1999 – Mike Ching, attendee of the 1998 conference wrote an extensive evaluation of the 98 conferences and presented it to the federal sponsors. In this report, Mr. Ching stressed his belief that for this experience to truly be about creating leadership there needed to be youth in the lead as a council to plan, develop and implement the conferences each year. National Council on Disabilities as the lead support agency, appointed Mike to chair the first National Youth Leadership Council and to appoint members to that team. NCD supported Mike and the first official council to completely lead all the planning and implementation of the National Leadership Conference. Youth were a part of every aspect of planning and conference activities and supported the attendee’s to fully participate in the experience. The council was composed of twenty members and Mike Ching, Sarah Triano and Frank Hernandez were in the lead to do most of the program planning. The rest of the YLC were responsible for mentorship and conference implementation. Sarah Triano created a small policy document with a small group of interested conference participants.

2000 – The lead support was transferred to the President’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. Mike Ching, with the assistance of PCEPD interviewed and selected a new Chairperson for the Youth Leadership Council. Jennifer Jones was selected and with the support of PCEPD, was able to select a new team for the Youth Council. Under Jennifer’s leadership, the council was then separated into a team of Council members with a select team of experienced Executive Committee members. Under the new model, the Executive team of 8 members did most of the conference planning and the YLC as a whole were responsible for mentorship of conference participants and leading conference activities. The 2000 conference session piloted the first policy agenda with all conference participants. This document was presented to members of the Presidential Task Force and the US Department of Education at the White House after the conference. The National Youth Leadership Council and all the participants of the 2000 conference began to have an important role in speaking out about policy issues that effect our community of young people with disabilities. The 2000 conference was the first year that a planning retreat was held with Executive Committee members to plan and formalize mission and goals.

After the 2000 conference, there was no guarantee of a continued conference or YLC. In a meeting with federal sponsors, Jennifer as the 2000 chair spoke with policy makers on the importance of continuing their support for the development of youth leaders. Under the leadership of Judy Huemann, five year funding was put out in an RFP in early 2001 for potential continuation of the conference. Jennifer sought support for a new home for the group and was fortunate to find that support and guidance in the Center for Self Determination at Oregon Health Sciences University. With the partnership of the Academy of Educational Development, Lori Powers of OHSU in partnership with Jennifer, Chair of the 2000 YLC, submitted a proposal to the US Department of Education for the ongoing funds to support not only a conference but an ongoing network of youth leaders to have a voice in policy making at the federal level and to support the ongoing development of a new generation of leaders in the disability community.

Funding was received in late spring and a transition team was formed from leaders of the YLC and past conferences to assist in the development of the National Youth Leadership Network. Jennifer stayed with the group to assist in transition and to help the group to formally elect a new chair in the fall of 2001.

A new team of YLC members was selected in early summer 2001 and a formal training retreat is to be held in September to support the new Council to function as a planning and implementation team for the new NYLN.