Institute on Disability and Human Development awarded $4.3 million Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support grant
The Institute on Disability and Human Development, in partnership with Brandeis University and key collaborators and stakeholders, has been awarded the five-year, $4,375,000 Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Family Support grant from the Administration for Community Living's National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. Sumithra Murthy will serve as the PI with Tamar Heller as co-PI. Co-investigators from UIC include Kelly Hsieh, David Camacho, Randa Abdelrahim, Tanvi Bhatt, Spyros Kitsiou, Jae Jin Pak, and Timotheus "T.J." Gordon, Jr.
The goals of the RRTC are to 1) Bridge aging and disability across the life course to advance family support; 2) Promote promising and evidence-informed practices for diverse and underserved family caregivers; 3) Generate new knowledge and policy recommendations in critical family support areas; and 4) Create a National Resource Center on Family Support to provide training and technical assistance (TA) as well as to disseminate information.
The RRTC will focus on the lived experiences of family caregivers of disabled individuals, with intentional inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who are often overlooked. This RRTC will emphasize ways to bridge aging and disability research, practice, and policies; and increase understanding of the experiences and needs of families from understudied and underserved racial and ethnic groups and how to support them, especially Hispanic/Latino/a/e/x, Black, and LGBTQ+ family caregivers.