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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
I love Portland!
I am very excited to be visiting one of our national affiliates, Metropolitan Family Service (MFS) in Portland, OR. From the eco-friendly toilets at the airport to the awesome public transportation, giant bookstores and little coffee shops, this is a great city. Today I had the opportunity to meet the executive team at MFS, facilitate a training for program managers, site coordinators, activity leaders, go out for a healthy lunch with the program managers, and still have time to visit two after-school program sites. Metropolitan Family Service is a non-profit organization dedicated to building stronger communities by providing services, connecting people with resources and offering volunteer opportunities throughout the Portland, Oregon region (www.metfamily.org). I was so impressed with the thoughtful questions and comments participants had during the training and seeing them "in action" at the sites. One school site I visited had a welcoming and calming environment. The quiet area below was in the hallway (left) and the cafeteria included a living room area (right). Tomorrow we are going to hold a focus group with the site coordinators to identify their needs for training and support for inclusion and next steps to ensure every child is successful.
Monday, April 20, 2009
KIT Goes International!
This is an exciting week in KIT-land! We will be conducting our first international site visit at the Navy Child & Youth Programs (CYP) in Naples, Italy. The visit actually occurs next week, but the travel part later this week. The goal of the visit is to orient the CYP professionals to KIT's services, visit the facilities and meet the staff and provide consultation on the CYP process of in-take for families with children with special needs. I will also meet with the regional staff from Navy CYP Europe and discuss the best ways to provide inclusion support to overseas installations. There will also be gelato involved and a visit to the famous pizzeria that has been described as the "sacred temple of pizza."
We cannot say enough about the Navy's commitment to the inclusion of children with disabilities and other special needs. They are looking at inclusion systemically and working on process and program improvements at every level. This is truly a top-down and bottom-up approach to organizational change. In many cases we have seen organizations whose journey to inclusion rests on the shoulders of one or two change agents. Once these one or two people leave the organization, or get promoted or relocated, the process of inclusion is hard to sustain for the rest of the staff left behind. In our work we caution these change agents to share their work with others and to develop and implement strategies that don't rely on them for success. The US Navy has change agents at every level and at every installation we have encountered thus far. Their energy and enthusiasm about inclusion is inspiring and we are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with such committed, dedicated professionals.
Ciao!
We cannot say enough about the Navy's commitment to the inclusion of children with disabilities and other special needs. They are looking at inclusion systemically and working on process and program improvements at every level. This is truly a top-down and bottom-up approach to organizational change. In many cases we have seen organizations whose journey to inclusion rests on the shoulders of one or two change agents. Once these one or two people leave the organization, or get promoted or relocated, the process of inclusion is hard to sustain for the rest of the staff left behind. In our work we caution these change agents to share their work with others and to develop and implement strategies that don't rely on them for success. The US Navy has change agents at every level and at every installation we have encountered thus far. Their energy and enthusiasm about inclusion is inspiring and we are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with such committed, dedicated professionals.
Ciao!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Hi from Orlando, FL!
Alissa and I are in Orlando doing training for the Training & Curriculum Specialists in Navy Child & Youth Programs. There are 100 of them here, and they represent Navy installations from all over the world. In fact, today we had lunch with 2 wonderful T & Cs from Italy and they shared a lot of interesting information about life on and off a military base in a foreign country.
In addition to the training we have provided, we have been able to informally talk to people at the meals and networking events. We are getting so much good feedback from the field about KIT's eLearning modules. Almost 2,000 Navy CYP professionals have completed the four self-paced modules so far. Go Navy! It is nice to hear that people are finding the modules both helpful to their work and fun to do.
We have one more day here and then we are back on Southwest Airlines headed for home. Alissa and I are both feeling very grateful that we get to work with people that are so committed to serving children and that we have the opportunity to spread the message of inclusion far and wide.
In addition to the training we have provided, we have been able to informally talk to people at the meals and networking events. We are getting so much good feedback from the field about KIT's eLearning modules. Almost 2,000 Navy CYP professionals have completed the four self-paced modules so far. Go Navy! It is nice to hear that people are finding the modules both helpful to their work and fun to do.
We have one more day here and then we are back on Southwest Airlines headed for home. Alissa and I are both feeling very grateful that we get to work with people that are so committed to serving children and that we have the opportunity to spread the message of inclusion far and wide.
