Bridging Knowledge to Action: Connecting People, Practice, and Possibility
May 11-13, 2027 | Virtual
With an Opening Celebration on May 10
Call for Presentations
The 2027 SNTI is an opportunity for the IDD-MH community to come together and learn. We welcome everyone to submit their ideas for presentation! You do not need to have a full presentation developed at this point. There are many ways to share, and our team is here to support you to transform your idea into a presentation at SNTI.
We are looking for presentations that go beyond simply sharing information by connecting ideas to real-life experience and bringing together different perspectives. We welcome presentations that explore both successes and challenges, share lessons learned, and include diverse perspectives.
We especially encourage ideas from across the START network. This includes START team members, people who receive START services and their families, community partners, NCSS training participants, and others who partner with local START programs or NCSS.
If you are considering presenting but are unsure where your idea might fit, we want to hear from you!
Have questions or need help?
The SNTI Planning Team hosts office hours to support potential presenters who have an idea but would like additional assistance developing their presentation details. No registration is required. Dates and Zoom links are available on the call for presentations webpage.
All presentation applications are due Friday, November 6 at 6:00pm ET
Theme and Objectives
Bridging Knowledge to Action: Connecting People, Practice, and Possibility
We know more about the mental health aspects of intellectual and developmental disabilities than ever before. However, knowledge alone does not improve people’s lives. Our challenge at the 2027 SNTI is to build the bridge between what we know and what we do.
Knowledge comes from many places - research, lived experience, family knowledge, professional expertise, and community. No one person or single source has all the answers. Moving knowledge into action requires us to listen to one another, question what we think we know, and use what we know to make a meaningful difference in the world.
Building the Bridge Together
At SNTI 2027, we are asking not only “What do we know?” but “How does what we know become what we do?”
Each SNTI presentation will help build that bridge. Together, we will challenge ourselves to think about how ideas can be shared, understood, adapted, and put into practice. We will explore what helps knowledge lead to change, what gets in the way, and what we can do differently. Each session adds another piece to the bridge connecting people, practice, and possibility.
SNTI 2027 invites us all to be both teachers and learners: bring what you know, stay curious about what you don’t, put learning into action, and keep building what is possible.
2027 Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of SNTI 2027, participants will be able to:
- Examine different sources of knowledge including research, lived experience, professional expertise, and community wisdom, and explore how these strengthen IDD-MH practice.
- Identify what helps or gets in the way of putting knowledge into practice across people, organizations, communities, and systems.
- Identify ways to make knowledge useful and actionable for different people, roles, cultures, communities, and settings.
