On the Road Again!

Today I am packing up and getting ready for a couple of trainings on the east coast next week. I think I can speak for Nili and Alissa also when I say that we love nothing more than getting out of the office, hitting the road and talking inclusion with people. Presenting a KIT training is a wonderful give and take with the participants. We learn a lot of them, and we hope they learn a lot from us. Our trainings are designed to make people think about inclusion in both large ways and small everyday, simple ways. We want people to take their new perspectives out of the classroom and into their lives. We also want them to commit to being flexible and willing to adapt some of their ingrained practices, if it will better support a child in their care. Changing practices is very difficult, takes sustained effort and constant reminders. Knowing this, KIT staff is always there to prompt, nudge and remind. We have developed online resources and tools for people to help them on the journey. We let people at our trainings know that we are just an email or phone call away. We don’t want our trainings to be a one-shot deal. “I came, I learned about inclusion, then I went back to doing what I have always done.” No, no, no, no, no. It’s a process and we are there to support each of our learners along the way.

That’s why it is so exciting to be preparing for a trip. There will be new people to meet and invite to join us on this beautiful path of inclusion.

June 10th, The Art of Inclusion in the Theater Arts Classroom, VSA International Conference, Washington DC. Co-presenting with Imagination Stage, Inc. Our 2009 Leadership Award winners!

June 11th- Success with Challenging Behavior: ADHD and Make & Take Accommodations, Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, Washington DC.

Safe and happy travels wherever you are headed this summer!

Don't forget to register for the KIT National Conference on Inclusion! We want to see you at the Bahia Resort in San Diego, September 29-October 1, 2010!

Finding the Zen in Inclusion, Part 1

MC Yogi - Give Love (Giving4Living Mix) from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

At KIT we have a number of venues for people who work in child and youth programs to request consultation and help from our staff. In particular, Nili Mathews on the KIT staff provides a great deal of personalized service helping child care and recreation providers work through challenging situations in inclusion. As we debrief some of the calls in our weekly meetings, I have noticed that lately the calls are peppered with a healthy dose of desperation. Now, you have to figure that a call coming into a helpline comes with a certain amount of urgency. However, there is another quality that I have noticed in the past few months, and that is emotion. We’ve heard tell of staff members at youth programs spending a lot of time crying the break room, threatening to quit or just being exasperated and at their wits end over the process of ensuring that a child (whether a two year-old or a ten year-old) can be successful in the program setting.

So, this increased level of emotion and stress in trying to serve children and families will be the theme of my multi-part series “Finding the Zen in Inclusion.” Over the past two years I have been studying yoga and ayurveda, and I have been amazed at how the tenets of yoga have applied so seamlessly to my everyday life. Be sure that this has not a lot to do with organized religion. By offering these thoughts, I do not attempt to take away from your own beliefs, but merely to provide some ideas and maybe even a tool or two that can be useful in dialing down the drama.

Today’s offering is “View everyone as an extension of yourself” (Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul, Deepak Chopra, 2009). I encourage you to practice this when you are having a difficult conversation with a parent, or working through a challenging behavior with a child. Too often we take sides and become adversaries, when what we need to do is find a common sympathy that links us all together. How much love can you give? How much generosity of spirit can you show a child who is pushing all of your buttons? I know it isn’t easy. I know that when you have 30 other children (or more) to serve, and the families they are attached to, that your love and energy is spread pretty thin. But, this is a practice. Give it a try and see what happens when you align yourself with the situation, rather than putting a wall between you and it.

Be sure that this practice of finding one-ness with others is not the same as taking everything personally. It could be that the elevated emotion we are hearing about is because people are taking their jobs, and the tough situations, very personally. It’s an occupational hazard in this field of caring for others. Taking something personally has a flavor of “this is about me and what I have or have not been able to make happen.” Engaging in one-ness with others is more about finding that common place where we can connect with others and find “agreement, consensus and reconciliation” (Chopra).

I give you this MC Yogi video called “Give Love” to enjoy. Please use the comments to discuss.

Inclusion is….about a collective consciousness.

KIT a Hit at the LEAD Conference in DC

On August 14 I traveled to Washington, DC to attend the LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) conference. I was asked to co- present at this conference with my friend Sheri Sherman from the San Diego Zoo. We had a great time and our session was a hit. We presented on the building of bridges between the participants and their frontline staff and between them and their upper management. There were many sessions throughout LEAD on interesting topics I don’t usually get to hear about. One of the sessions I attended was on assistive technology. There are incredible items people have created to make museums, theater, and the arts more accessible. We were able to hear about these items, where they are being used and of course the cost so we can save up to have our very own. We were even able to test them out! Apparently they will be coming soon to Disneyland. What is it? Oh yes, sorry it is a hand held device, about the size of an iphone, (a little bigger) and it captions a predetermined script on an exhibit or attraction for those with hearing loss or who are deaf, in addition it can audio describe for individuals who are blind or have low vision. The changes in accessibility are quite amazing due to these types of technology.

Did you know that KIT will be co-hosting the LEAD conference next year with the San Diego Zoo? If you are a museum or cultural institution this would be a good conference for you to attend. The dates are August 26-29, 2010 in San Diego!

(pictured are Nili Mathews, KIT and Sheri Sherman and Bob Dillon, San Diego Zoo)