Grant Initiatives
Kids Included Together (KIT) is a recognized leader in training staff in youth, recreation, and child development programs to build inclusive environments. Generous foundation, corporate and government funding allows KIT to provide best practice training, create materials and offer technical assistance at youth and child development programs.
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Qualcomm
Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris
Grossmont Healthcare District
Statewide Inclusion Institutes
Karl Kirchgessner Foundation
CVS Charitable Trust, Inc.
Rancho Santa Fe Women's Foundation
County of San Diego, Community Projects Award from Supervisor Greg Cox
National Foundation for Autism Research
Charles & Ruth Billingsley
De Falco Family Foundation Inc.
Give Something Back Inc.
Junior Seau Foundation
KSWB Cares for Kids Fund
National Charity League of San Diego
Nierman Foundation
PacifiCare/SecureHorizons
Ronald McDonald House Charities
Ronald McDonald House/San Diego
San Diego City Schools Community Service Association
San Diego County Chapter Society of CPCU
San Diego Fnd./Great Good
The Country Friends, Inc.
The Melvin Garb Foundation
Toby Wells Foundation
Union Bank of California, N.A.
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Each year, the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) selects outstanding US organizations that help young people with disabilities achieve full and productive lives. KIT is in the second year of a two-year, $100,000 grant from MEAF. A cornerstone of the grant work involves promoting systemic change within the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), the national organization for the 3,700 local Boys & Girls Clubs chapters.
One of the major activities for the first year was to develop new materials for BGCA including a Guiding Practices for Inclusion document. The eight-page Guiding Practices tool provides best practice statements in eight topic areas, including Transitions, Safe and Positive Environments, Supportive Relationships and Overall Club Operations and Support. KIT also created a 65-page program manual, designed to guide Clubs through the process of becoming an inclusive organization. The manual has been written specifically for Club staff at all levels, from executive leadership to youth development professionals. KIT is confident that this product and others generated from the grant will have a powerful systemic impact on Boys & Girls Clubs around the nation. Not only will many more children with disabilities be served through this effort, but the children with disabilities who are already enrolled as members of Clubs, will experience a greater sense of belonging as Club staff gain an understanding of the philosophy of inclusion.
Qualcomm Inc funding is supporting the Sustaining an Inclusive Program Environment project. This project will produce valuable resources intended to deepen and strengthen youth program staffs’ understanding of inclusion. KIT will develop and distribute a series of KIT To Go products. Each of KIT’s four core training modules will have a complementary take-away printed piece that will provide further information, resources and hands-on activities that will be shared with the participant’s colleagues. KIT will also create 8 audio and video podcasts to further support the transfer of knowledge to additional staff members. To further deepen the impact of the training, KIT will then create Tools for Inclusion, a comb-bound booklet that will include more advanced activities for staff training.
Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris
Generous support from the Norris Foundation is allowing three KIT Affiliates to make great strides in inclusion. Joe & Mary Mottino YMCA in Oceanside, the City of Santee Recreation Department and the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center all received on-site training, child specific consultations, technical assistance and training support materials with funding from the Norris Foundation. Continued funding from the Norris Foundation is supporting these three organizations as they enter the next phase of their affiliation. Norris funding will allow KIT to provide community trainings, coaching webinars and onsite modeling sessions, child-specific consultations, and eLearning. Funding will also allow for more individualized support and guidance from KIT staff in strategic planning for inclusion within each organization.
Funding from the Grossmont Healthcare District is supporting the Inclusion for All Children with Disabilities Project – East County. Through this project, KIT is able to offer support to affiliate and community organizations in East County. Support enables programs to have access to community trainings and events, eLearning training modules, and customized trainings. KIT support also includes site-specific and child-specific consultations and follow-up coaching visits.
Statewide Inclusion Institutes
KIT received a grant from the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities to sponsor 13 regional Inclusion Institutes. The Institutes are structured to deliver practical skills necessary to creating inclusive environments in youth recreation organizations. Each intensive seminar increases participant knowledge of disabilities, provides information on accommodations for specific disabilities, presents techniques for guiding positive behavior and offers other training related to including children with disabilities in community recreation programs. Seven Institutes have been held around California and six more are scheduled by 9/30/07. KIT expects to reach nearly 1000 recreation staff through this grant.
Karl Kirchgessner Foundation
KIT received $10,000 from the Karl Kirchgessner Foundation for Training and Website Development to Support Best Practices for Youth. This Project has provided funding to ensure our website design is accessible to individuals with visual impairments and produce a short video presentation on techniques for making accommodations for children with visual impairments in a program setting. KIT will also use Kirchgessner funding to continue disability awareness educational sessions at KIT’s affiliate sites, initiated through a previous Kirchgessner grant.
CVS Chaitable Trust, Inc.
KIT received a $30,825 grant from the CVS/pharmacy Charitable Trust, the private foundation managed by CVS Corporation for the Inclusion in North County Community Organizations project. With the Inclusion in North County Community Organizations project KIT will establish new affiliations with no less than 5 community organizations serving children in non-school hours. KIT will conduct an informal needs assessment of the following communities: Bonsall, Cardiff, Del Mar, Encinitas, Fallbrook, Oceanside, Rancho Santa Fe, San Dieguitio, San Marcos, Solana Beach and Vista to determine the areas of greatest need. KIT will work collaboratively with the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education to evaluate existing opportunities for children with special needs and determine where KIT’s services would have the greatest impact. This project will increase the number of inclusive opportunities for children with disabilities in North County San Diego by building the skills and confidence of staff who know that including children with disabilities is the right thing to do, but just don’t know how to go about providing meaningful inclusive opportunities.
Las Patronas
Funding received from Las Patronas will support the National Training Center on Inclusion Sophie Brody Resource Library, and give providers the inclusion tools they need to complement training. NTCI’s Sophie Brody Resource Library will serve as a valuable resource for recreation, child development, and youth development providers from across San Diego County. Resources include: children’s books that depict children with disabilities, disability specific reference books, videos and DVD’s on a myriad of disability related topics. Other resources available in the library include a toy lending library, computer work station, and a copy station. To promote usage of the library further, monthly KIT trainers will have the opportunity to participate in Lunch and Learn Trainings, during which trainers will receive accelerated training on library resources and on a variety of inclusion topics. The Sophie Brody Resource Library will also be the venue for special workshops like the recent Make & Take: Picture Schedules, where child care providers worked with KIT Trainers to create customized picture schedules using Boardmaker ™ software and a laminating machine. Future Make & Take workshops will include Social Stories.
Rancho Santa Fe Women’s Foundation
Funding from the Rancho Santa Fe Women’s Foundation funded the Sustaining Inclusion in North County Community Organizations project. Through this project, KIT identified and trained managerial staff at 4 KIT Alumni Affiliates in North County, who will be instrumental in sustaining the philosophy of inclusion. Utilizing the train the trainer model, KIT mentored each identified person and trained them on KIT’s Opening Doors to Inclusive Programs curriculum. After receiving the training, site trainers presented the modules at their site locations for their staff. In addition to training, each site had access to 12 site-specific consultations provided by KIT staff. Site trainers were available to the staff throughout the process, thus building additional skills in observation, identification, and assessment. Participating alumni also received a complimentary registration to KIT’s 4th Annual National Conference on Inclusion: After the Bell Rings: Innovative Strategies for Including All Children in Out-of-School Time Programs.
County of San Diego, Community Projects award from Supervisor Greg Cox
KIT was delighted to learn of support from Supervisor Greg Cox for eLearning. Funding will provide four eLearning modules free of charge to KIT’s 34 San Diego County affiliates. KIT’s eLearning includes self paced units on four core training modules- Introduction to Inclusion, Respectful Accommodations, Supporting Positive Behavior and Partnering with Families.
KIT is pleased to announce First 5 Commission funding for Inclusion Builds School Readiness Project. This collaboration between KIT and 6 Navy Child Care Centers seeks to increase the number of children with disabilities attending Navy Child Care by training staff to create inclusive child care environments and to provide stimulating, supportive environments for every child. Including children with disabilities in early education programs brings measurable gains in cognitive, language and social skills, all critical for learning in elementary school. This initiative will strengthen the linkage between the Navy’s early care and education community and the K-12 community and families to promote successful kindergarten transitions for children with disabilities and other special needs.
A First 5 Commission priority is school readiness. School readiness is increased for children with disabilities if their early educators are trained and skilled at identifying and including children with disabilities in their programs. The 6 Navy Child Care Centers participating in this project draw 1,063 children from families representing all branches of military service in the San Diego area. Grant funding will allow KIT to provide intensive and customized training on inclusion, to equip the 12 staff leaders with the information, skills and resources to include preschoolers with disabilities. Training on 4 core modules-Introduction to Inclusion, Positive Behavior Support, Respectful Accommodations and Partnering with Families will be presented. After receiving training on a core module, the staff leaders will be asked to present the module at their site location, thereby reaching a total of 228 staff at the 6 locations. In addition to training, each Navy Child Care Center will have access to 20 hours of child specific consultation provided by KIT staff. Trainees will shadow the KIT staff completing the consult, thus building additional skills in observation, identification and assessment. The comprehensive training in Inclusion Builds School Readiness Project will have the systemic effect of grooming staff that is knowledgeable on inclusion, who will serve as a staff resource at their respective sites and once the grant is concluded, continue in their resource role, thus ensuring sustainability.
National Foundation for Autism Research
The National Foundation for Autism Research (NFAR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to funding the development of innovative treatment programs and options that improve the quality of life for children living with autism spectrum disorders. NFAR funding for Supporting Inclusion for Children with Autism in Community Programs will allow KIT to develop training materials and resources, as well as provide child-specific consultations, to organizations in San Diego County including children with autism in their programs. The project involves three components: 1) the development of audio podcasts on autism and consultation; 2) consultations designed to support providers in creating accommodations to support meaningful participation for children with autism in community programs; and 3) the creation of a resource guide for out-of-school time providers on facilitating relationships between children with and without autism. The podcasts will live on the National Training Center on Inclusion (NTCI) section of the KIT website and be available to providers throughout the country. NFAR funding will allow KIT to provide 20 consultations to programs in San Diego County, as well as the development and production of 1000 resource guides.
Generous funding from The Parker Foundation is supporting the Sustaining Inclusion for Phase One Affiliates project. This project will provide training and technical assistance for phase one affiliates, laying the foundation for future work on the developmental continuum to inclusion. This project is allowing KIT to establish relationships with key personnel at each site, provide on-site trainings and access to community trainings, events, KIT’s national conference and resource library, as well as valuable technical support to staff working at phase one affiliate sites.
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Copyright 2007
