Dr. Brianne Tomaszewski is the Principle Investigator of the North Carolina Community Collaboration for Employment funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living Developmental Disabilities Projects of National Significance. The team is interdisciplinary and includes individuals from the Department of Psychiatry, TEACCH, CIDD, Department of Allied Health, School of Education, School of Social Work, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and critical community collaborators from NC DHHS, including Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Public Instruction, and other organizations providing transition and employment services for individuals with ID/DD.

Anna Ward, Director of Advocacy and Inclusion at the CIDD, will serve as the Project Director. LEND Self Advocacy Faculty, McCafferty S. Kermon will serve as consultant.

Over the next five years, the $1.1 million grant will optimize opportunities for competitive integrated employment, postsecondary education, and independent living for individuals with ID/DD and their families in the Triangle and Triad regions of NC. This project aims to increase the capacity of the Triangle and Triad regions in NC to provide, expand, and strengthen transition services and facilitate improved transition activities between schools and their local organizations for individuals with ID/DD. The objectives are to: 1) establish an NC Community Employment Collaborative with state and regional participants, 2) conduct a landscape analysis, 3) develop a Community Collaboration Employment Transition Plan, and 4) implement the Community Collaboration Employment Transition plan. The long-term goal will be to sustain the NC Community Employment Collaboration and extend it to a statewide system.