Youth with disabilities often struggle to transition into new areas of life; many of these youth have difficulty finding and keeping jobs, making friends, and living independently. The present study evaluated the effects of accessing an online guide detailing how to access supports in one's community. The goal was to increase knowledge of community support options for four students with intellectual and learning disabilities from a transition-support program in the Mountain West. The guide included information on applying for a job, making friends by joining a social club, and finding where to attend church. Results indicated that each student learned how to better access community supports following usage of the guide. Participants also report improved community support following this training. Each participant stated that the intervention meets their goals and that they do not find it aversive to use. Implications for practitioners and practical applications of this research to transition programs are discussed.

L'économie des organisations étudie l'ensemble des arrangements institutionnels permettant la mise en oeuvre de la production et l'échange de biens et de services. Dans cette thèse, nous analysons le comportement activiste des organisations non gouvernementales spécifiques au Liban. Il apparaît que le mode de gouvernance des ONG libanaises est fondé sur un concept de solidarité intra-communautaire. Comment expliquer le recours des Libanais aux services offerts par les ONG ? Ainsi, nous avons démontré que ces ONG locales sont conduites de manière à atteindre des objectifs de nature politique. La théorie de l’entrepreneuriat politique est parfaitement adaptable à ce cadre d’analyse. Un nouvel équilibre politique dans la société libanaise est trouvé. Afin de mettre en évidence l’activisme des ONG libanaises, nous avons proposé une méthodologie empirique, qui se base à la fois sur une démarche quantitative et qualitative. Le modèle proposé a pour objectif principal de montrer l’existence d’une relation entre la perception des bénéficiaires des services rendus par les ONG et leur appartenance communautaire. Ainsi nous avons démontré qu’au Liban, la plupart des bénéficiaires appartenant à une communauté particulière connaît et identifie les ONG qui leur sont favorables en matière de redistribution. Il s’agit d’une explication de la persistance du communautarisme. Les ONG libanaises comme les groupes de pression jouent un rôle intermédiaire sur le marché politique. Cette intermédiation de la démocratie représentative permet de penser les jeux et les stratégies des groupes de pression mais surtout de sortir de l’idéal normatif de la démocratie représentative égalitaire. / The economy of organizations examines the institutional mechanisms that lead to the production and exchange of goods and services. This thesis analyzes the mode of operation of NGOs which are specific to the Lebanese Society. It raises the following question: how can one explain the appeal of NGOs to the Lebanese people and the lure to use and benefit from its services? This thesis has demonstrated that these NGOs operate to achieve certain goals of political nature. The theory of political entrepreneurship applies to this concept and is considered as the theoretical framework of this dissertation. Accordingly, this thesis posits that a new political balance is achieved in the Lebanese society. In order to highlight the effectiveness of Lebanese NGOs, this thesis proposes an empirical methodology based on both quantitative and qualitative approach. The main objective of the proposed model is to underscore the existence of a relation between the perception of individuals benefiting form services rendered by NGOs and their sectarian affiliations. This dissertation reveals that the majority of people benefiting of NGOs services in Lebanon belong to a certain sect that favors people pertaining to its denomination in terms of redistribution. This signifies that the effects of sectarianism are still rampart in the Lebanese society. Lebanese NGOs can be considered as pressure groups that play an intermediary role on the Lebanese political scene. This intermediation of representative democracy allows a reconsideration of political strategies of pressure groups especially as to go beyond the norms of egalitarian representative democracy used in the Lebanese model of governance.