Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
The Tomorrow’s Leaders Today program is a leadership development program for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Leaders). The vision for the program is to establish a path to support people with disabilities who have exhibited a drive to make change, in achieving their goals. The program works with the participants to develop a project plan in partnership with community members for sustainability in addresses a local issue.
In year one, The Arc Georgia managed a nine-month pilot program with support from the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD), in which five Leaders with disabilities engaged in the following core project components:
- A Leadership Summit for program introduction and foundational leadership training;
- A Leadership Coach for accountability and support in creating and completing a community project;
- A Leader Mentor, who is an expert in the subject area of the Leader’s community project, to offer advice and model success; and
- Completion of monthly online learning modules to future examine critical components of leadership.
The Tomorrow’s Leaders program was such a success that funding was secured to provide for a second phase – Tomorrow’s Leaders Today – to continue with an expanded scope of work for four of the Leaders from the year one project and a new Leader for year two.
The Arc Georgia is honored to work once again with the GCDD in this second year of the leadership program. The twelve-month Tomorrow’s Leaders Today program will support the Leaders to develop a Community Action Plan that will have a sustainable impact on their community.