The Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) training provides graduate and post-graduate level professionals from a variety of disciplines the necessary preparation for becoming future leaders in the field of Developmental disabilities for the improvement of the health of infants, children, and adolescents with disabilities.

The program serves graduate, post-doctoral, continuing education healthcare professionals, and family members of children with disabilities. Trainees participate in 12 areas of leadership competency ensuring a high level of interdisciplinary clinical competence in providing health and related services for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families.

Medium and short-term training opportunities are available, depending on the participant's qualifications, interest, experience and availability. This program is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)

LEND faculty and staff educate undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral and continuing education health care professionals in a number of ways:

• Teaching in related KU Medical Center departments as well as regional universities
• Guiding trainee observation and participation in CCHD clinical services
• Facilitating medical student and resident clinical rotations
• Providing community-based training with collaborative partners

Trainees from a variety of health care backgrounds, including family members of an individual with a developmental disability, participate in longer learning experiences that focus on understanding and working with children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities and systems of care.

The CCHD hosts a number of trainees each year, and is responsible, according to the LEND website, for "the expert faculty, facilities, and other resources necessary to provide exceptional interdisciplinary training and services." LEND training is one of the reasons each child served by the CCHD receives exemplary clinical services. For more information about LEND, go to the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) at www.aucd.org. This video describes the nationwide network of LEND centers and programs and the many ways they work to improve our communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG5u8ybB92o