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
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
Toby Wells Foundation
Junior Seau Foundation
SDCS Community Service Association
San Diego County Chapter Society of CPCU
San Diego Fnd./Great Good
Nierman Foundation
Ronald McDonald House/San Diego
Ronald McDonald House Charities
KSWB Cares for Kids Fund
Junior Seau Foundation
The Melvin Garb Foundation
PacifiCare/SecureHorizons
De Falco Family Foundation Inc.
The Country Friends, Inc.
Junior Seau Foundation
National Charity League of San Diego
San Diego City Schools Community Service Association
Give Something Back Inc.
Union Bank of California, N.A.
Charles & Ruth Billingsley
National Foundation for Autism Research
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.
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 due to funding from this grant. In addition to training and technical support, another grant objective was to ensure that 8 children were included at each site, for a total of 24 children with disabilities served. In actuality, the total number of children served in this project was 116, exceeding the goal by 92 children. The support from the Norris Foundation allows KIT to provide a robust level of support to these 3 organizations, opening the doors to 116 children with disabilities.
Grossmont Healthcare District
A $25,000 grant received from the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) is enabling KIT to expand services and training to youth organizations in East San Diego County. Participating organizations include Boys & Girls Clubs of East County, Christian Youth Theatre, East County YMCA and the City of Santee Recreation Department. KIT will make available training on sustainability and leadership available to these organizations. KIT will also establish new affiliate relationships with at least two organizations in the GHD boundaries who are willing to make a commitment to include children with disabilities in their programs. During the grant cycle, KIT will target after school programs at school district sites in the east county with a goal of increasing inclusion at these programs. KIT’s long term goal is to continually increase the capacity of the Grossmont Healthcare District’s community to include children with disabilities in recreation, child development and youth development programs.
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 $20,000 from the Karl Kirchgessner Foundation for Creating Inclusive Environments for Youth with Vision Impairments. This Project has increased KIT’s service to youth with vision impairments, sponsored a disability awareness reading program and trained 309 youth service providers on respectful accommodations. As part of the grant, KIT offered enhanced consultation services to affiliate organizations that include children with visual impairment. KIT also used Kirchgessner funding to schedule and deliver disability awareness educational sessions at KIT’s affiliate sites. Over 168 children and 32 staff members were reached through this outreach initiative.
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 will fund the Sustaining Inclusion in North County Community Organizations project. The Project will provide training and technical assistance to 8 KIT Alumni Affiliates in North County. Each Alumni Affiliate has received 4 years of KIT training; has demonstrated a continued commitment to include children with disabilities; and has an identified need for on-going training and technical assistance due high staff turnover rates. Organizations eligible to participate include Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA’s, before and after- school programs, summer camps, theatre arts programs, athletic programs, aquatic programs etc. The selected organizations will receive a combination of four community and/or site embedded trainings, technical support, 12 site-specific consultations and registration to KIT’s 4th National Conference on Inclusion.
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.
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Copyright 2007
