Program Summary

Silicon Valley Independent Living Center’s Youth United works with youth with disabilities who are transitioning to adulthood and exploring who they want to be. Many youth in the school system do not have any knowledge of the history of our people and its great leaders with disabilities. Youth will have the opportunity to learn about disability rights law and the first steps of self-advocacy toward interdependent living. For this reason, SVILC works with the target population so that they can have the ability to explore who they are and who they want to be. Since 2009, the program has successfully graduated thirteen youth who are out in the world successfully studying, working, having fun and giving back to the community.

Organization Information

Silicon Valley Independent Living Center (SVILC) is a cross-disability, inter-generational, and multicultural disability justice organization that creates fully inclusive communities that value the dignity, equality, freedom, and worth of every human being. We do this by building disability identity, culture, and pride; creating opportunities for personal and community transformation; and partnering with others to ensure that civil and human rights are protected.

SVILC was founded in 1976 and is part of a network of 29 Independent Living Centers (ILCs) in California and over 400 nationwide. ILCs are private, nonprofit, non-residential organizations that exist to meet the varying needs of persons with disabilities, providing information and referral, peer mentoring, independent living skills training, and advocacy. In addition, each ILC meets the local needs of its community, which at SVILC includes housing assistance, targeted peer mentoring for those who are transitioning out of nursing homes, a youth leadership program, and assistive technology training.

“Independent Living” is both a philosophy and goal for persons with disabilities to live their lives with the same choices, control, and access as their peers without disabilities, particularly in the areas of health care, education, employment, housing, and transportation. Every day, persons with disabilities are denied jobs and community participation due to discrimination because of the way they look, talk, or move. ILCs work to remove attitudinal barriers so that persons with disabilities can enjoy all of the benefits that society has to offer.

SVILC is a consumer-controlled organization, with over 70% of the staff and volunteers having at least one disability. SVILC is also the only cross disability agency in Santa Clara County, serving individuals with any disability and at any age.

Background and Need for Program

Congress enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) in 1975 known now as currently enacted as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) whose 36th Anniversary we celebrate this year. IDEA is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities. It addresses the educational needs of children with disabilities from birth to age 18 or 21 in cases that involve 14 specified categories of disability.
With this law in place, we still have a national high school graduation rate for students with disabilities (62%) that are well below that of students without disabilities . When SVILC came across this statistics Sarah Triano, Executive Director, had to implement a youth leadership program. In this program, the youth learn about their history dating back to the beginning of time. Many youth are surprised to learn that some of our greatest leaders had/have disabilities such as Abraham Lincoln and Julia Roberts.  With this little bit of accreditation it is amazing how much a youths world can grow.  

Youth United goes out and works directly with High Schools to recruit youth. It is vital that the youth, our next great leaders, are found now and shown what they can expect from life. A high school aged youth is at a crucial stage where they are building their future. A youth’s path is often defined by whom they have met and the places they have gone.  This is where SVILC really comes into play, we take the time and energy show the youth in tangible evidence what their life should and could be like. This is done by taking field trips to various locations  and inviting guest speakers to come out and talk about how the youth can come out and participate with them.

SVILC offers the young leaders of today some instrumental life lessons. We do this by supplying the youth an opportunity to learn about themselves.  SVILC has an eight week leadership program that a youth goes through.  SVILC has a targeted outreach to get to the underserved populations in Santa Clara County. SVILC works closely with many community organizations such as Silicon Valley De-Bug, Parents Helping Parents, Reach and The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center.

Silicon Valley De-Bug is a part of New America Media -- a national ethnic news association. They have produced award-winning media, in particular by highlighting unheard voices such as youth, immigrants, and other often-isolated communities. The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center has a great youth space that offers youth a safe place to come and share who they are. They have come out and held our banner with us in our second annual disability pride parade and festival.

More than 90% of youth suicide victims have at least one major psychiatric disorder. Some of these psychiatric disorders include depression, which causes a teen to feel sad, lonely, withdrawn, and unable to accomplish simple tasks and alcoholism or drug addiction, especially when combined with another mental health disorder; 20 to 50 percent of suicide attempts are related to drug or alcohol use. According to the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), about 8 out of every 100,000 teenagers committed suicide in 2000. With these startling statistics, there is a dramatic need for a youth with a disability to find a safe space where they can share openly what they are going through and can get appropriate feedback from their peers.

Estimates are that about 69% of young adults with disabilities are unemployed three to five years after high school, and only 29% of employed young adults with disabilities earn wages above the poverty level. With these statistics, it is with alarm that we must get out and work with employment aged youth on the resources they should be using. SVILC Youth United will work with the youth as they work with Department of Rehab to make sure they get what they need out of the employment and education systems. SVILC Youth United will maintain a list of scholarships available to them as they begin pursuing collegiate studies.

The SVILC Youth United program was originally borrowed from Chicago’s Independent Living Center program YIELD. In Youth United SVILC covers, what every youth needs to know in the growing and changing world. The materials covered designed by SVILC’S Youth Team. This team consists a developed Youth Advisory Board, each member of the board has taken the Youth United program and/or is a graduate of Youth Leadership Forum. A fantastic and well-known Youth Organizing volunteer, Sara Moussavian and a Youth Leadership and Outreach Coordinator, Eliza Riley. This is one well-glued together team that lives off the passion on youth leadership.

SVILC’s Approach

The curriculum takes the youth on a journey of self-discovery. A lot of time is put into making sure that the material is youth and disability friendly.  One of our Youth Advisory Council members proudly pronounces, “If one of us can’t participate none of us can!” A considerable effort is always given to making sure that the videos are available in close captioning and have audio descriptions and all actives/games are accessible to all.

These weekly topics are split into two nights per week, giving the youth the opportunity to explore and learn what they are comfortable with.  This way a youth who does not necessarily feel comfortable learning about some of the material can decide to come another night instead. The youth who participate in this program has held this to be invaluable and have enjoyed being given this choice.

The first topic that is discussed is our history and culture.  The youth get to know both the ugly and beautiful parts of what has happened in their past. Through this careful examination one of the participants, after watching the Ed Roberts interview on 60 Minutes, remarked “I’m not alone.” In this simple statement, the participant had grown leaps and bounds.  Being able to recognize the disability in himself, long after being told that this part was ugly and should remain hidden was a huge step forward.  This youth has been able to takes steps far exceeding what we had hoped and he continues to challenge society’s thoughts and notions.

We also spend time talking about sex and sexuality.  This is important to a growing and changing youth because so often sexuality is ignored or denied. SVILC gives them a safe space and open environment in which to talk about and ask questions related to: sexual education, gender in a gender specific environment, sexuality and sexual orientation, and the male and female reproductive systems.

We take a careful look at building your own Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and getting a job. Many of the youth who come to SVILC do not realize that they deserve an education and have every right to go out and get a well paying job with benefits. One of the participants grew leaps and bounds when she was able to come to her parents with an agenda of what she wanted to talk about in the IEP meeting. That she knew was going to make her education work for her.

A huge step in a youth’s life is moving out of the house. This step can be scary because the youth does not know how to find an accessible place, living with a roommate and budgeting. A youth comes, learns hands on through activities, and role-plays what it is like looking for place to live, what questions they should ask a potential property owner.  They go on a shopping trip where they purchase groceries, cable plans and insurance just to name a few.  All of this leads the youth to take a more serious look at where they truly want to be in the coming months and what they need to get there.

The youth’s most favorite night is when “How a Bill Becomes a Law!” is played.  This night the youth have every excuse to use noisemakers and laugh. This game is based upon the show “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and through School House Rocks songs “How A Bill Becomes A Law,” and “Three-ring government” the youth learn about the many steps it takes to put the bill into action. With this knowledge, they feel that their participation is needed and wanted and start-making plans on making a difference and getting legislation passed.

SVILC wraps up the learning experience with perhaps one of the most important sessions.  The class gets together and openly discusses Activism and Advocacy.  Through this discussion, the youth are able to discuss that both are needed in a movement and how each one contributes. The youth also study what some activists and advocates have done in the past, Judy Chamberlin and Wade Blank, and how they can use their ideals in the present day.

SVILC is known for peer counseling sessions. SVILC offers weekly youth mentoring nights. These nights consist of a group of youth coming together and sharing stories of where they have been and where they want to go. When a youth graduates the program they are encouraged to become mentors to the next session. SVILC offers training programs where we talk about what kind of information needs to be reported and how to deal with some of the information that is shared. In the past there have been times where the youth helped each other dealing with sexual abuse and growing up in the medical model.  There is always one adult in the room to ensure the emotional safety of everyone involved.                    

One of the favorite activities that of the youth here at SVILC is the youth days.  These days are held every other month and are a day where the youth have full control over what they want to see and do.  The youth advisory council has taken the time to choose on which Saturday they want the event to be held as well as what the event will feature. An example of one of the favorite Saturday’s spent at the Independent Living Center has been our summer fun day.  The council went out and brought hot dogs, soda and snacks.  They spent the afternoon chilling outside, eating, talking and of course playing a mean game of water balloons.  

Program Goals

The Youth United program results in increased leadership skills with youth with disabilities; knowledge of the hidden history of people with disabilities; a strong sense of disability pride; social relationships and networks; increased awareness of disability rights, legislation; and increased choice and control over their life.

SVILC will evaluate the effectiveness of the program by using a participatory approach known as Participatory Action Research (PAR), an interactive methodology that engages community members in evaluating the program and controlling the use of outcomes.  The program evaluation plan has two parts: evaluation with program participants and evaluation with facilitators.

Program Participants
SVILC will conduct Pre/Post tests before and after the training using an interview questionnaire that was created by Sarah Triano and Beth Mark. It was designed to capture changes in outcome measures, such as self-efficacy, disability identity, self esteem and civic engagement. 

Facilitators
SVILC staff will meet with the Youth Advisory Council bi-monthly to address and discuss any concerns over facilitation skills, extent of participation, flow of the session and things to improve on the next sessions.

Data Analysis
Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected during the program. SVILC's Program Director will run a statistical analysis to determine whether there was a significant change in indicators before and after the program. A descriptive analysis will be used to analyze participants' demographic information.

SVILC strives to conduct all of its evaluations and reporting activities in a way that ensures not only the validity and reliability of results, but also maximum participant involvement. SVILC takes informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality very seriously. The overall goal of this consumer-directed evaluation approach is the provision of quality services that are responsive to their needs.