What is Project TEAM?

Teens and young adults with disabilities want and need to do lots of activities, but sometimes things in the environment make it hard to do activities. People, places, information, and rules are some examples of parts of your “environment.” People with disabilities have a right to ask for changes in their environments. Project TEAM teaches youth and young adults with disabilities how to make changes in their physical and social environment.

Project TEAM helps teens and young adults with disabilities to:

 Look for things that help or make it hard (supports and barriers) in their physical and social environment.

 Think of ways to make changes (strategies).

 Plan how to ask for change.

Project TEAM is based on a disability rights perspective, which means that people with disabilities should be treated fairly like people without disabilities. Instead of teaching the trainees how to change themselves, Project TEAM teaches the trainee to change things outside themselves that make it hard for them to do the things they want to do. They learn how to problem solve barriers in their environment using the “Game Plan.”

Who developed Project TEAM?

Project TEAM was developed by a group of partners at Boston University that includes Dr. Jessica Kramer, an occupational therapist, and a panel of youth and young adults with disabilities.

Other organizations have also helped develop Project TEAM, including the Boston Center for Independent Living and the Institute for Human Centered Design.