50 Years - Opening Doors, Transforming Lives
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Timeline
How quickly the world has changed for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 50 years. Families, community organizations, researchers, clinicians, staff, students, educators, public policy makers - all have worked together to create change. We will create an even better future together over the next 50 years. The VKC Timeline places VKC milestones within the context of the national disabilities rights movement.
View list of center directors
2000s
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2000 — Tennessee Disability Pathfinder founded in partnership with the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities.
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2000 — 1st TRIAD Social Skills Camp marks beginning of a variety of summer programs to promote academic learning and skills development for children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. [Photo VU/Neil Brake]
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July 2001 — The Kennedy Center becomes a Vanderbilt university-wide research center, further enhancing the Center’s interdisciplinary resources.
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2001 — President Bush introduced the New Freedom Initiative to promote community integration and issued an Executive Order for tearing down barriers for people with disabilities.
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2005 — Vanderbilt Kennedy Center is designated as a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, funded by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD). Pictured left to right: Pat Levitt, Wanda Willis, Pat Morrissey, Fred Palmer, Shirley Shea, and Elisabeth Dykens. [Photo VU/Tommy Lawson]
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2005 — Multicultural Outreach Program begins.
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2007 — Tennessee Alliance for Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities established.
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2007 — 1st Annual VKC Science Day.
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2008 — Vanderbilt Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Training Program becomes a part of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. LEND is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA.
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2008 — Disabilities, Religion, and Spiritual program begun.
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2008 — TRIAD Families First workshops for parents of young children with autism begun with gift of Ann and Monroe Carell, Jr.
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2008 — The Volunteer Advocacy Program (VAP) accepts and trains its first cohort of volunteer advocates. VAP trains parents of children with disabilities to serve as advocates for families in their respective areas during school Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings.
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2010 — Next Steps at Vanderbilt begins—Tennessee’s first postsecondary education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
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2010 — Academy of Country Music Lifting Lives supports Music Camp for individuals with Williams syndrome, begun 2005.
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March 2011 — Tennessee Allies in Self-Advocacy (TASA) created.
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Fall 2011 — The “MRL Building” is renamed One Magnolia Circle.
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2012 — TennesseeWorks established to increase the number of young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities employed, a statewide collaborative supported by an AIDD Project of National Significance.
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Blue text = federal legislative landmarks