Creative Tools and Projects for Engaging Developmentally Disabled System-Involved Youth

Shoshana Phoenixx

Training Description

Developmentally disabled system-involved youth (SIY) often communicate, participate, and move through transitions in ways shaped by developmental capacity, sensory experience, and lived history. Participants will look at disability, communication, and developmental capacity through a social-model-of-disability lens, then move into creative tools that help youth show what words may not be able to carry.

This training will introduce practical projects and activities that support communication, choice-making, and connection for youth in child welfare settings. Participants will work with examples such as visual tools, sensory-based projects, and lifebooking adaptations. Two breakout sessions will give participants the opportunity to practice choosing and adapting creative tools for realistic SIY involving situations.

Learning Objectives