Keystone Institute India (KII) Operations Report to KHSI Board of Directors
April - June 2024
This 3-month period was both full and fulfilling as we enter into the final 6 months of our current 5-year grant with the Rural India Supporting Trust.
Supporting Advocacy and Activism within our Work
We have moved forward carefully over the years in efforts to assist people with developmental disability to take on leadership roles in their own lives, in the services they receive, and in leading efforts to rally people with developmental disability to speak up and speak out. Several years ago, we wrote an initial paper on the state of what is called self-advocacy and outlined several ways forward to supplement and strengthen existing efforts. As a result, two “Voice and Choice” events were held last year, working to identify potential leaders and also to finalize a workshop process that can be provided broadly to existing activist groups across the country. Building on this work, two advocates who participated in the pilot sessions were hired to lead the two/ 2-day workshops hosted in May of 2024, both in Pondicherry. They worked with the quiet support of Prashansa Pandey and Leel Raj to facilitated 30 people with developmental disability to participate fully in the course. Our work in this area has also included the development of a widely used “Advocacy and Activism” module in our Foundations of Direct Support training module, as well as the workshop developed by Betsy Neuville, Sudha Nair and Leela Raj promoting power-sharing with people with developmental disabilities and people who are nonverbal. The stepwise build of our work is based on a coherent model of forward movement that is meant to promote change that lasts.
15 Customised Employment Certifications Achieved
We are thrilled that 6 more Customized Employment Course participants have achieved their full credential in Discovery from Marc Gold and Associates, one of the foremost international experts in Customised Employment. They join the existing certificate-holders raising the total to 15 – these are the first-ever certified customised employment practitioners in all of India. Our seed projects in Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi continue to meet monthly under the leadership of Leela Raj – with two employment successes and several internships gained by people they are serve. We are thrilled to have brought these ideas to India, and the practitioners are pleased with what they are learning about the people they serve, as well as universal principles of assisting people with developmental disabilities to find fitting and dignified work and careers. Although our support to these projects is planned to close out at the end of the year, all 3 seed projects are planning to continue the services established.
Collaborative Evaluation in Bangladesh
One of our commitments within the KII purview is to develop a positive culture of critique, where practices and experiences are shared freely, and the insular nature of many organizations widen towards a larger purpose.
This period, we completed one comprehensive service evaluation at FARE in Chattogram. Ranjana Chakraborty and Dr. Manisha Bhattacharya coordinated the evaluation and also served as team members. In addition, as is our practice, we included one new evaluator, Dr. Shabnam Rahman from Kolkata. Betsy Neuville served as team leader, and a comprehensive report was given both orally and in writing. These sorts of evaluations serve to both upskill evaluators, capacitate existing services already interested in forward movement towards inclusion, and give everyone the chance to move from theory to practice. We have a second evaluation scheduled this year for August at Diya Foundation in Bengaluru, one of the Customised Employment sites we have helped to establish. We might also add that these efforts create a climate of open feedback and a culture of helpful critique, rare in the Indian scenario. The redacted report is available HERE, to illustrate the depth and scope of the evaluation process.
University of Lucknow holds first International Conference on SRV in India
“The Idea of Value: Disability and Social Role Valorization”, a two-day conference held April 2-3 with 114 participants was a great success. Keynote addresses were delivered by Betsy Neuville (The Invisible Apartheid) Dr. Naval Pant, Geeta Mondol, and Anju Misra, all members of the All-India SRV Leadership Alliance. Over 50 papers were delivered at the conference. Our MoU with University of Lucknow was also extended for another year, with great satisfaction by all parties. The Conference Souvenir can be found here. Our new issue of Jhalak was launched at this event, as well as the disability studies textbook with our chapter in it.
New Service Models and Expansion in Uttarakhand
We continued the work of assisting Sumitra and Rosy to move towards a supported living arrangement, as a model of serving people in more independent circumstances A small house was identified, the program description was finalized and available here. Complex issues related to the organization of these services under the corporate structure we are operating under remain to be sorted out, however, we are hoping Rosy and Sumitra will be able to move in July.
We continue to struggle to hire two additional Reunification Specialists to expand services to new regions within Uttarakhand. Our first round of interviews did not yield the applicants we are seeking, so we have posted the positions once again. In the meantime, our Unity Uttarakhand (Family Reunification) team of four continues to fill the gap, traveling to the institutions at Haridwar, Kotdwar, Almora, and Pithoragarh. Located in remote areas requiring long travel from Dehradun where our staff is based, it is a real challenge to hire staff.
Well up to the challenge, the Unity Uttarakhand team held their planning retreat 29-30 May, which consisted of both team strengthening activities (Finding Meaning in the Work) followed by the creation of a Family Reunification PATH for the future.
Some of the major initiatives to be included in our development include taking a leadership role in sharing best practices across all family reunification projects across India by convening Annual Conclaves, as well as building stronger and more intentional circles of support around reunified families. Betsy and Geeta facilitated the retreat.
Tools for Inclusive Practice: Dynamic Processes for Change
In collaboration with Together Foundation and Yash Charitable Trust, we were thrilled to lead a three-day Tools for Inclusive Practice workshop in our home city of Delhi, for 26 carefully selected participants. We changed our method for teaching this important workshop with the expectation that each of the participants will actually use the process tools we teach in this intensive, practical workshop. We hand-selected the participants with our partners, and as a result, the level of seriousness for implementation was high. In fact, three participants from YASH presented back to the entire group on their implementation process and all they have learned from it.
Support for CAFT Project
Our KII team has continued to support the launch of the Children and Families Together (CAFT) project, by participating in meetings (Aparna Das and Betsy Neuville), as well as planning and delivering a two-day workshop in Ranchi, Jharkhand, in an effort to strengthen organizations and people in the region on issues of inclusive practice, as well as to gauge receptiveness toward inclusive ideas. KII lead staff were Ranjana Chakraborty, Grace Daniel, Aparna Das, Gopika Anand, and Betsy Neuville. We were particularly satisfied by the positive engagement of the representatives from Bandhu Purulia (West Bengal) and Deepshikha (Ranchi) and with some strong potential allies identified. We were thrilled to pull in SRV 1.0 grad Dr. Gopika Anand from Deepshikha into the faculty group, and she was excellent. Aparna, Grace and Betsy met with the newly formed CAFT group on the third day to discuss their ideas for follow-up that we inspired by the two days of learning, as captured in this graphic. As well, we have been sharing our office space in Delhi with CAFT team members and are hosting a visit to our family reunification services by USAID in August.
Family-Designed Supports and Services
Betsy and other KII team members continue to consult with families and family groups to assist them to design inclusive living situations which have built-in safeguards alongside a truly community-based framework. After a series of design meetings, we were pleased to write up the beginning draft of what we have named the Householder Model, in which adults with developmental disability received support in ancestral property, with private organizations contracted to provide support in all forms, under the governance of families. These types of models are an alternative to the large-scale segregated complexes being planned and built across India. Promoting these small-scale arrangements is a powerful part of our purpose from the earliest days of our work in India.
Direct Support Practitioner National Curriculum
As the Board will remember, we have developed a 14module course “Foundations of Direct Support” which is now rolling out across India through the efforts of 50 certified master trainers. As a related accomplishment, Vinakshi Singh, who leads the Community Lives initiative in Uttarakhand, received the International Direct Support Professional of the Year award from ANCOR, our national provider alliance. Vinakshi traveled to Santa Fed, New Mexico, to receive the award in April, where she was able to meet many KHS leaders and colleagues. Vinakshi has been an exemplar of inclusive practice, positive ideology, and a person-centered mindset who we have worked alongside for 4 years. We are so proud and pleased with this accomplishment and recognition.
Workshops and Events
Keystone Institute India provided 13 events, conferences and workshops during this reporting period continuing our work towards inclusive practices in India and other parts of Southeast Asia. Five events were held online and eight were conducted in-person to engage wider network throughout Southeast Asia and balance the best use of our resources.
3-4 April 3-4 2024: The Idea of Value: Disability and Social Role Valorization (SRV) - Lucknow University Uttar Pradesh (114)
5 April 2024: A Glimpse of Social Role Valorization Contributing towards a Full and Rich LifeHindi - Zoom online. (10)
9 April 2024: The Power of Roles – Action for Autism, New Delhi
10 April 2024: Understanding the Culturally Valued Analogue – Action for Autism, New Delhi
11 April 2024: Seeing is Believing, Believing is Seeing - The Power of Mindsets Zoom.
12 April 2024: Foundations of Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV, - Zoom online
May 2024
15 May 2024: Disability is Natural: Reflections on an Inclusive Mindset - Ranchi, Jharkhand
16 May 2024: The Power of Roles: A Foundation for Inclusive Practice – Ranchi, Jharkhand
June 2024
10, 11 & 12 June 2024: Planning Tools for Inclusive Practice: Dynamic Processes for Change – Delhi, India
21 June 2024: Foundations for Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV (Bengali) – Zoom
24 - 25 June 2024: My Voice, My Choice: Strengthening and Building the Self- Advocacy Community – Pondicherry
25 June 2024 AISRVA Members Special Zoom Session: Exploring Creative and Diverse Ways to Teach SRV
27 - 28 June 2024 My Voice, My Choice: Strengthening and Building the Self- Advocacy Community - Pondicherry
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Respectfully submitted by
Elizabeth Neuville Executive Director