RI Department of Health Dare 2 Dream Initiative/Conference

Since May 2009, the Rhode Island Department of Health’s (RIDOH) Office of Special Needs (OSN) has sponsored Dare 2 Dream (D2D), a statewide conference for middle and high school students.  D2D is designed to provide a forum for students with special needs and disabilities to explore transition from school to adult life. 

D2D focuses on exploring individual strengths to support youth’s social and emotional health and sharing tools for resiliency. Additionally, D2D aims to provide an engaging and positive experience for all participants. 

Each year, D2D is built around a theme that is related to a transition topic and that theme helps to shape the development and facilitation of programming so that the event addresses students’ strengths and recognizes their abilities. Two Champion Teachers, each with extensive experience in Rhode Island’s special education system, work with the D2D Team to support outreach, registration, and completion of each student’s pre-event work. (The pre-event work is related to a strengths-based assessment for each student who participates.)

D2D utilizes the expertise of a national educational consultant (Leading to Change, Inc.) to develop a hybrid program that includes a virtual kick-off, a mid-year Workshop, and a spring conference on a State college or university campus. 

Since its inception, student and teacher registration for D2D has increased from 325 in 2009 to more than 800 in 2025! Participants include people from more than 45 different schools.

RIDOH’s Title V Program is the primary funder of D2D with additional support from the Rhode Island Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS) and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE).