Building Advocacy and Learning Leadership Skills
Currently we are teaching the BALLS class at Sentinel High School in Missoula to Laura Coulter’s class. We are also planning to go into Stevensville and Hellgate High Schools later this fall.

APRIL Peer to Peer Project
Mary Olson (Peer Coordinator) and Michael Beers, Transition Coordinator, will be traveling to the APRIL (Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living) Conference in Anchorage, Alaska to help facilitate the annual Youth pre-conference as well as host a break out session for the main conference. The session will be about the APRIL Youth Peer to Peer Project. This project places Centers for Independent Living (CIL) who want to serve youth better, with mentors from all across the country who have experience working with youth in transition. Summit has collaborated with APRIL on this project since its beginning, and Mary Olson and Michael Beers have mentored two CILs–one in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2010 and the other in Portland, Oregon in September of this year.

Disability Mentoring Day
For the second year in a row, Summit will help coordinate Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) in our service region on Wednesday, October 19. DMD is an opportunity for Young people with disabilities ages 14-28 to be set up with a job shadow in the career/job of their choice. We have received over 40 applications from the Missoula area. We are in the process of placing students with mentors in fields ranging from teaching and law enforcement, to food preparation and nursing. If you know any professionals that would like to mentor a young person on this day in Missoula, please contact Michael Beers or Mary Olson at the Missoula office, 728-1630, or Mary Millin in the Hamilton office, 363-5242.

MYTransitions conference
The MYTransitions Project’s Fourth Annual Transition Conference will take place November 9-11 in Great Falls at the Best Western Heritage Inn. This conference will address the transition needs of students with disabilities from high school to the next steps of their life. It also will give students, parents and teachers a chance to network with one another while learning what services and resources exist in their area to help them transition with success.
If you have questions or would like to attend this conference you can find a registration form on the MY Transition’s website http://www.montanayouthtransitions.org/ or call June Hermanson at 442-2576.

Mike Beers, Youth Coordinator