The Promise and Possibilities of Community Conversations: Expanding Opportunities for People With Disabilities

The persistence of disappointing employment, educational, and community outcomes for youth and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) demands new and effective pathways for changing the post–high school landscape. This article presents “community conversations” as a promising approach for identifying community assets and opportunities, as well as spurring systemic change at the level of local communities. We describe this approach and its core components, review empirical studies of community conversations, and highlight the promise of this approach for informing policy and practice. We then provide an overview of this special issue and describe the policy and practice contexts within which included studies were carried out