>> JUDITH: Oh you're writing down the answer. Yes, please. sometimes those mics are hard to get around. >> AUDIENCE MEMBER: We started a youth program five years ago at our CIL in Dallas, and it was in our strategic plan that we wanted to do that. So that was basically what legitimized the whole concept, but we really did not know where to start. We had core money for staff, and so what I developed was a survey that basically said, if you were to be involved in a youth program, a program for youth with disabilities, what would you want to see it include? And what do you feel like is currently missing? What do you not have access to? and I try to put it in kid friendly language. And then listed 25 options and then a place to add options. And we circulated that survey -- Region X in Texas, there are ten service centers -- maybe there are more than ten -- there are 20. Center service that the Texas education agency has set up that have different expertise. And we're in Region X and we asked them if they would send that survey out to high school students with disabilities and to special ed teachers in high school. And we got 100 returns from each population. >> JUDITH: Wow. >> AUDIENCE MEMBER: and we also sent it to -- in the Dallas area just at that same time it was very fortunate that the VR agency was launching a transition program and they hired 100 transition VR counselors. So about 18 are in the Dallas area. So we sent that survey to those 18 counselors and got 16 returned. We did not sadly get very many returns from parents because that was our other target audience, but we compiled the answers and really they were very similar, which validated what the needs were, and I can just tell you that the top five were, without a doubt, hands down the first one was opportunities for recreation and social activities, social and recreation engagement, they wanted that.
>> JUDITH: Oh you're writing down the answer. Yes, please. sometimes those mics are hard to get around. >> AUDIENCE MEMBER: We started a youth program five years ago at our CIL in Dallas, and it was in our strategic plan that we wanted to do that. So that was basically what legitimized the whole concept, but we really did not know where to start. We had core money for staff, and so what I developed was a survey that basically said, if you were to be involved in a youth program, a program for youth with disabilities, what would you want to see it include? And what do you feel like is currently missing? What do you not have access to? and I try to put it in kid friendly language. And then listed 25 options and then a place to add options. And we circulated that survey -- Region X in Texas, there are ten service centers -- maybe there are more than ten -- there are 20. Center service that the Texas education agency has set up that have different expertise. And we're in Region X and we asked them if they would send that survey out to high school students with disabilities and to special ed teachers in high school. And we got 100 returns from each population. >> JUDITH: Wow. >> AUDIENCE MEMBER: and we also sent it to -- in the Dallas area just at that same time it was very fortunate that the VR agency was launching a transition program and they hired 100 transition VR counselors. So about 18 are in the Dallas area. So we sent that survey to those 18 counselors and got 16 returned. We did not sadly get very many returns from parents because that was our other target audience, but we compiled the answers and really they were very similar, which validated what the needs were, and I can just tell you that the top five were, without a doubt, hands down the first one was opportunities for recreation and social activities, social and recreation engagement, they wanted that.
041212_transcript_Holt.docx