Keystone Institute India (KII)
Operations Report to KHSI Board of Directors
October – December 2024
This period marked the close of the 2020-2024 five-year RIST grant, which also marks the end of 9 years of important and even profound work. We have, as of the end of November, submitted a full proposal for a new 5-year grant building on the foundation we have laid. KII encompasses the national training institute, exit pathways from Uttarakhand’s custodial institutions, customized employment, the creation of Path Center for Person Centered Planning, advocacy and activism, and the formation of Direct Support Practitioner as an important and dignified profession. In addition to these important components, we will increase our focus on genuine inclusive education and coordinate national resource-sharing on Better Practices in Family Reunification for institutionalized persons.
Deepening and Strengthening: PASSING as a means to Program Improvement
This period, we expanded the number of people from India who have completed the PASSING workshop, an intensive training equipping people to analyze service quality using 42 different ratings. Vinakshi Singh and Chitra Paul from Uttarakhand and Kerala, in-country leaders in Social Role Valorization, attended a five-day experiential workshop in Boston, Massachusetts, offered by a collaboration of Keystone Institute and the SRVIP. It was an excellent experience, getting us primed to offer a 2025 firstever India PASSING workshop scheduled for March 2025. We have tested the instrument in India a few years back and have been waiting to form the first evaluation/training team using these ratings.
In preparation, KII’s Betsy Neuville, Susan Thomas of Syracuse University and PASSING author, and Raymond Lemay of Valor Press in Canada created an International Abridged version of the ratings manual, in production now in Canada. This is a major accomplishment in “internationalizing” PASSING, as western examples have been removed. We have the first use of the new ratings manual March with a team of 11, co-led by Ranjana Chakraborty and Betsy Neuville, evaluating a residential service in Bengaluru. The team is a mix of 50% US PASSINGtrained Indian SRV leaders, and 50% SRV Indian course graduates who are teaching SRV and serving on evaluation teams. While in US, Vinakshi and Chitra came to Pennsylvania and visited several programs operated by Keystone Human Services for persons with intellectual disabilities, and several programs operated by Keystone Autism Services.
Building Competence in Inclusive Futures Planning
This year, our collaborators at Yash Charitable Trust in Mumbai committed to using tools for inclusive practice such as PATH and Capacity Search to listen to the people they serve and help craft futures alongside them. They sent several staff to our facilitator development program, Tools for Inclusive Practice”, then proceeded to put those tools to work. They have kept in close touch with our experts in person centered tools and requested that we come to observe their process facilitators in action. As well, they requested that we facilitate a process for someone who does not communicate using words, to learn and improve in this area. In November, Betsy Neuville and Grace Daniel spent two days at YASH serving as circle members, coaches, and mentors to facilitators Jyoti and Ketki. This trajectory of leadership development is necessary if the level of expertise in the country is to increase and the methods are to gain traction. The YCT Team has set the bar high for committing to the tools as they see what positive elements they bring into people’s lives.
Launch of Supported Living
In 2019, we created the first exit pathway from the infamous Nari Niketan in Kedarpuram, a custodial care institution for women and girls with disabilities known for its deadly conditions. Community Lives was established to create two small scale, individualized community homes for 4 women each. These developmental programs were established to demonstrate that institutionalized people with disabilities can live successfully and thrive in everyday community, with high quality support.
Two of the women, Rosy and Sumitra, benefitted greatly from living in the community, as have the other women they shared their homes with. After literally decades of institutionalization and rejection, they flourished in the community. Over time, they decided they would like to try living in a more independent setting. At the same time, we wanted to explore options that would meet the needs of people who could live more independent lives.
Supported Living was designed for just this purpose. Rosy and Sumitra selected a small home and signed a lease. For the first six months, there will be staff available in the home at all times, but this level of support will be gradually decreased over time as their confidence and competence increases. Both women are well connected in the community and are eagerly embracing their new independence.
Convincing government custodians that these women are capable of learning, growth, and independence, and that they can be trusted to make decisions, has been a long-term effort.
One need only look at the images of Rosy from the first day we met her at the institution next to recent images to get a sense of the incredible potential that all people, including people with disability, have. We often ask ourselves, when we first meet people in the institution, “Who might this person become?”
In 2019, when we first met Rosy in the institution, she seemed tentative and unsure – she kept to herself and away from the 125 others held within the institution and had few relationships. She had been in such places of loneliness and hopelessness since she was a young child.
Rosy exudes confidence and competence these days. Her world is bigger, and she has somehow come into her own, even after so many years. She is a beloved member of her neighborhood and has so many valued roles. Only in community can that potential be realized. Sumitra, after over a decade in the institution, is ready for new challenges, and has blossomed into a successful, hardworking, and contributing member of her community. Their move in November to their new home was a joyous day for everyone.
Participation at the Two-day CAFT Event
We were delighted to support CAFT’s two-day event in Delhi in December. Prashansa Pandey, Minu Ghosh, and Suhaib Ansari teamed up with the Children and Families Together (CAFT)Team to provide on-the-ground organizational and management support. As well, Geeta Mondol and Rishab Anand served on a panel, where they discussed family reunification, and we hosted an informational booth.
Continued RIST Support and Transition of Leadership
As new leadership is put in place for 2025-2029, we are preparing for Betsy’s changing role after 9 years of leadership as Executive Director, and hiring for a KII Director from India, as is the correct way to move forward. The interview process has been so far successful, and we are hoping to have a director named very soon. Betsy will continue her senior programmatic support for educational content, safeguarding for program quality, consistency with the shared values of RIST and KHS, high-level training, consultation and evaluation, and mentorship of emerging Indian leaders in inclusive practice over the next proposed grant 2025-2029. Betsy will be focusing as well on her continuing role as Executive Director of Keystone Institute, the educational institute of Keystone Human Services, which has served all of KHS for over 30 years
Full Circle: From our Founding to Today
In 2015, a team of KHS leaders traveled to India to analyze if there were areas in which Keystone could contribute to the development of responsive services and better lives for people with disabilities and their families. At that time, we visited a Family Association called Karnataka Parents’ Association for Citizens with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (KPACIDD), which was opening a residential program planned for over 50 people. This visit sparked many of the ideas we proposed in the design of Keystone Institute India. On 21-22 November, we were requested to provide training and support to KPACIDD leadership and staff as they work to adopt a more inclusive stance towards the services they promote and the staff they develop. They remembered us and have heard of our work’s power and are very keen on change. These kinds of connections and reconnections increase our momentum and keep us strong.
Workshops and Events
Keystone Institute India provided many events, conferences and workshops during this reporting period continuing our work towards inclusive practices in India. Three events were held online and five were conducted in-person to engage wider audiences and balance the best use of resources.
October 2024
21-25 October 2024: 5 Day PASSING Evaluation Workshop, Raytham, Massachusetts, US
November 2024
13 November 2024: AISRV Annual Rally: Leading Edge for Change: From Theory to Practice held online over Zoom
18 November 2024: Foundations for Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV held in person at Jhanki Devi College, Delhi
22 November 2024: Foundations for Inclusive Practice: Social Role Valorization Basics, held in person at KPACIDD Bangalore, Karnataka
25 November 2024: Foundations for Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV, held online over Zoom
28 – 29 November 2024: KII Leadership Work Session held in-person in Uttarakhand
December 2024
9 December 2024: Bridging the Gap between Law and Practice session held in person at the National Learning Event at Delhi (KII assisted with organization and management)
10 December 2024: Community Perspective – Voices from the Ground session held in person at the National Learning Event at Delhi (KII staff provided organizational and management services)
Website: www.keystoneinstituteindia.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/keystoneinstituteindia
Twitter: twitter.com/KeystoneIndia
Instagram: @keystoneinstituteindia
Respectfully submitted by
Elizabeth Neuville Executive Director, Keystone Institute