Child reading a book with teacher.

Latest Fund for Excellence Awards: August 2019

The Human Development Institute (HDI) established the Fund for Excellence for the development of innovative programs, services or products to address the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, for which funding is not currently available. In the July, 2019 funding cycle, HDI awarded three Fund for Excellence projects:

  • Universally Designed Health Coaching Pilot with Danielle Augustin, Lindsey Mullis, and Morgan Turner
  • You Can Do So Many Things project with Caroline Gooden, Kathy Sheppard-Jones, and Brittany Granville
  • Disability in Public Health Training with Tony Lobianco and Donald Lollar

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Athletic man in a wheelchair lifting weights.

Project CHEER offers Adaptive Exercise Videos to Improve Health for Everyone!

Individuals with disabilities experience many barriers that prevent them from living the healthiest lifestyle possible. Ability to participate in regular physical activity is a common barrier that individuals with disabilities face due to lack of guidance and inaccessible equipment. Inability to engage in regular physical activity puts individuals at a higher risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke. One of HDI’s grant funded efforts, Project CHEER, has made it one of their missions to eliminate as many barriers to physical activity as possible for all individuals. Throughout the past year, Project CHEER has been working to create a series of adaptive exercise videos which provide instruction on physical activity that everyone, regardless of knowledge or ability level, can participate in. Continue reading

Photo of Lindsey Mullis measuring heart rates.

Raising Awareness and Inclusion for Healthy Hearts

by Lindsey Mullis

The Kentucky CARE Collaborative (Cardiovascular, Assessment, Risk-reduction and Education) is a free blood pressure awareness program that aims to increase the number of people who are taking action to help control elevated blood pressure through appropriate counseling about health behaviors and/or lifestyle changes. Because Kentuckians with disabilities can have higher blood pressure than those without disabilities, HDI is coordinating the Project CHEER effort to provide more inclusive CARE programming. Continue reading