Center for Youth Voice, Youth Choice

The Center on Youth Voice, Youth Choice (CYVYC) is a resource center for youth with disabilities providing support to youth and their families. The Center shares research, advocacy, and education about alternatives to guardianship to empower youth with disabilities who wish to take control over their decisions after becoming a legal adult.

Through the Community of Practice, State Teams are selected and made up of community leaders and organizations working together to advocate for alternatives to guardianship in their state. The New Jersey state team seeks to promote supported decision-making as a more widely accepted alternative to guardianship and includes our youth ambassador, The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, and SPAN Parent Advocacy Network. In addition to developing plans to promote alternatives to guardianship for youth (ages 14 to 26) and support Youth Ambassadors with this work, state teams are part of a big Community of Practice, where they share information about their work and learn from each other and from us. The Community of Practice works together to come up with ideas for how to better advocate for alternatives to guardianship across all states.

New Jersey Youth Ambassador, Giancarlo Vicari, from Union, NJ debuts his Showcase Project comic book “Thinking for Me.” The comic book written by Giancarlo, is about a teenager becoming an adult, and how he navigates conversations around decision-making.