Brendan Klein is the Youth Advocacy & Engagement Coordinator at the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) in Valhalla, NY.
Hired in 2018 with a grant from the Taft Foundation, Brendan”™s mission is to engage his peers in integrated community service projects and expand inclusive social opportunities for young adults with disabilities in Westchester County. Brendan uses his social media/tech/video skills and personal outreach to help connect young people with disabilities to each other and integrate them into meaningful social activities in a way that is innovative and unique to the special needs community. In addition to his work at WIHD, Brendan is also a passionate self-advocate at both the local and state level, participating as a WIHD Board member, as an officer in Hear Our Voices group, as a peer facilitator at Youth Power and as a member of Self Advocacy-New York State, or SANYS. He will receive the SANYS 2019 Media Innovator award at their October conference. Brendan also serves as a self-advocate on the Family Advisory Committee at Life Plan NY, a NYS Care Coordination entity. Brendan will be presenting to his first national audience in November at the AUCD Conference in Washington, DC.
Brendan is very actively engaged in the community, both personally and with his social network. He volunteers at both the Pleasantville Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Pleasantville Community Garden, where he received the volunteer of the year award in 2017. Brendan was so inspired by the garden work and its mission that he decided to bring its therapeutic benefits to WIHD, spearheading a campaign to revive the garden with the WIHD Child Welfare program. This goal was accomplished through a grant from, and with the support of, his partners at the Pleasantville Community Garden and St. John”™s Episcopal Church where the garden is located. Brendan and his social groups regularly participate in the Volunteer NY annual 9/11 Serve and Remember project as well as the 914 Cares Empty Bowls project to help feed food insecure families in our local communities.
Brendan is the youngest of four brothers and a lifelong resident of Pleasantville NY as well as a cancer survivor. He is a proud graduate of the PUFSD/Pace University Lab School program and was the recipient of the 2013 Overcoming the Odds award from Student Advocacy in Elmsford, NY. In addition to be named a 2019 Millennial honoree, Brendan was also just awarded the 2019 Volunteer Rock Star by United Way.
