Thankful

I think Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. A day devoted to giving thanks for the abundance in our lives- what could be nicer than that? Both personally and professionally, gratitude is an important part of my daily life. I am intentional about practicing gratitude every single day, and I do it in various ways from writing and list-making to meditating on it. Check this out for ways to begin your own gratitude practice.

I find it very helpful to replace discouraging thoughts with those of gratitude. Things are tough in the world today, and it can be easy to be dragged into despair. As inclusion activists we are horrified when we see stories like this. It tells us that there is much more work to be done, and fuels our passion. A few too many of those, and not enough like this and it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning. We need to see that our efforts are making a difference. This is where gratitude comes in for me.

Here are 10 things I am grateful for in my work this year:

I am so thrilled with the commitment that the US Military Child & Youth Programs have made to inclusion. We have been working closely with them all year and it has been an incredible experience for all of us at KIT. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to go to the Pentagon to speak about our work with the incredible people in the Office of Child & Youth Programs and Office of Special Needs.

I am so happy to know that there are disability organizations like The Ability Center of Toledo, OH who are changing their model to more community inclusion. Last spring The Ability Center held a two-day KIT workshop for a large group of recreation and child development organizations in their greater area.

Organizations like Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital are also becoming firmly rooted in inclusion. They hosted a National Keys to Leadership conference on the topic of inclusion this year and Girl Scout leaders from around the country came to learn and share their own practice of inclusion.

Corporate foundations like Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) continue to support inclusion. Celebrating their 20^th Anniversary this year they awarded 20 agencies with Inclusion Champion Awards and KIT was one of them. Thank you, MEAF!

There are so many individuals making a difference, and we were so lucky to have Jon Williams and Teresa Hayes-Williams come all the way from Japan to speak at our national conference in October and share their personal journey of inclusion. It was incredibly moving, and I invite you to watch the recording by creating a free KIT account here (note- there is a small fee to view).

Our KIT founder, Gayle Slate, recently hosted a reception of past KIT supporters to update them on our doings of the past couple of years. The event was so well received and we were so grateful to have the opportunity to thank our original supporters for guiding our early development.

I am a big, huge fan of the work of Micaela Connery and Unified Theatre. This work is showing middle and high school kids that everyone has something to contribute and that focusing on ability is really the way to go. See Micaela’s work here and here and here. I am so grateful that this year Micaela asked me to join her board of directors.

Young people are so important to the inclusion movement, and that is why I am very grateful for the passion and energy of the I Am Norm campaign. Every time I promote it somewhere (and especially when one of the youth advocates is there to speak about it themselves) people get incredibly excited about it.

We are thankful to have been recognized as finalists in the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) San Diego’s PEAK Performance Awards this year. We were recognized alongside Mailboxes, Etc. and HD Supply- two giant corporations, and it was fun to be the little engine that could.

Finally, I could not be more grateful for the incredible team of people I work with at KIT. They care so much about this work, and they express it in ways that are positive, joyful, fun and empowering. People respond so well to KIT’s message, and I know that it is in large part due to how the KIT staff communicates it with such verve. I cannot imagine doing anything else, with any other people and I literally wake up every morning with a smile on my face because I have the incredible good fortune to work for KIT.

What are you thankful for in your work this year?

The Power of Two

I recently learned something about staffing and organizational behavior that I am calling "the power of two." KIT has been experiencing rapid growth over the past year, and we have added staff throughout the year. We are now lucky enough to have 2 digital content producers who work on social media, our website, our learning management system and translating our curriculum into a variety of digital formats. These two creative talents taught me this lesson, which I believe can be applied to any type of organization. Maybe another way to think of it is the "Noah's Ark staffing model." Here is how it goes- previously Michael was our solo digital content guy. He has a lot of expertise in his field and while we are all interested in technology and social media we do not speak his language. When he talks to us he probably always feels like he is teaching us! Which he kind of is. Enter our second digital content expert, Dora. The second Dora and Michael were introduced to each other I saw sparks fly. Because they share the same knowledge, experience and interests they can collaborate with each other in a way they can't with the rest of us. Seeing them work together, and what they have already produced with each other as a resource has really taught me the "no person is an island" lesson. It makes me think that two is more than twice as good as one, in some situations. It also makes me think that we should be intentionally creating these synergistic relationships among staff members, so that they each have their own sounding board. When I think about the organizations we serve, I think the child, youth and recreation providers would also benefit from this kind of pairing. It isn't mentoring, but more a peer-to-peer relationship that fosters creativity, problem-solving and shared experience. Now that I have learned this lesson, I hope to be able to use the information to plan for staffing. It's also something I will use when helping our affiliated organizations plan for and sustain their inclusive practices.