Youth Leadership Initiative: The Arizona SILC’s Strategic Approach Fact Sheet

At the local, state, and national level, systems are tasked to provide services and supports to youth in transition and their families and they are not adequately designed to fully address the needs of this population and often have unintended negative results.  Within this system of services there are often competing priorities (i.e. employment, housing, transportation, post-secondary, etc.).

For youth with disabilities, the obstacles are formidable. After completing their secondary education, young adults generally do not have a clearly defined path to the basic components of adulthood.  Youth and young adults with disabilities and their families in Arizona, as well as those across the US, are facing these systemic dysfunctions. The purpose of this fact sheet is to highlilght how the AZ SILC strategically developed and supported youth in becoming advocates and leaders.