A. Social Role Valorization Courses (SRV)
“Across India, change leaders committed to better lives for people with developmental and psychosocial disability are talking and learningaboutSocialRoleValorization,apowerfulsetofideasabout howtoassistpeopletohavefull,rich,meaningfullives.SRVprovides a high-order framework for understanding the society in which we live, and the place people with disabilities tend to hold within it. As well, SRV thinking is accompanied by very practical implementation strategies to help people with disabilities have access to the good things of life. SRV Courses vary in length and depth, and we offer a continuum of development in SRV theory, implementation. And everyday practice”:
SRV 101: Foundations of Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV: (English/Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi) 3 hours
Please join us as we introduce participants to the basics of Social Role Valorization. This overview event will present the idea of assisting people with disabilities and other devalued conditions to have positive social roles as a productive and helpful response to wounding life experiences. People wishing to understand the life experiences of people they support and the implications of those life experiences and are committed to the work of making life better are encouraged to attend.
This foundational material is essential to those wishing to serve others in meaningful ways, and who are impassioned to make a difference in the lives of others. Many participants experience the learning within this event as the most helpful, inspiring, and clarifying body of knowledge they have been exposed to in their professional development, and it assists in long-term understanding and focus on being of service to others in ways that matter.
SRV 102: The Power of Roles: A Foundation for Inclusive Practice*: (English/Hindi/Bengali) 8 hours
This full-day course, typically offered in person, provides an orientation to the major thrusts of SRV combining basic foundational ideas, illustrative examples, with opportunities with rich discussion and practical application. This rigorous day of learning, thinking, and connecting with like-minded others will build capacity for change in people and organizations. This is a great place to start a journey of exploring these ideas alongside others.
SRV 103: On a Role: Practical Aspects of Role Theory*: (English/Hindi/Bengali) 3 hours
This 3 hour workshop is essential for those wanting the help people move into valued roles for a fuller life. For those with some knowledge of Social Role Valorization principles, and who are hungry for how to help people move into valued roles, this workshop is for you. How do you identify roles people might be interested in? Once you have a role in
mind, how might you help a person enter that role? How can adaptations and accommodations be used which will enable people with significant competencies impairments to be successful? Our faculty will discuss some of the practical ways that we can walk alongside people with disabilities as they successfully move into valued roles. An “SRV Gem”, this workshop is intended for people who have attended brief versions of a day,or less covering the basics of “SRV”. *
SRV 101 or SRV 102
SRV 104: The Road Most Travelled: Using the Culturally Valued Analogue*: (English/Hindi/Bengali) 3 hours Online or in person
Social Role Valorization principles contain many “gems” – ideas that have great power and applicability towards making life fuller and richer for those who are at risk of social devaluation. The culturally valued analogue, or CVA, is one such gem. In this workshop, we will explore this idea, applying ourselves to studying the natural pathways as a basis for strategies, methods and tactics used to help people, especially those marginalized, to have valued roles and gain the good things of life. The simple yet potent use of the CVA in all your work toward a better life will help anchor you again and again.
SRV 101 or SRV 102
SRV 105: When ‘Just Ok’ is not Good Enough: An Exploration of the Conservatism Corollary*: 3 hours
Hungry for more information about Social Role Valorization? Had some basic training in it? If so, then this workshop is for you. This workshop introduces participants to a powerful component within SRV known as the Conservatism Corollary. This has nothing to do with politics but DOES have to do with strengthening the options we offer to people as we help them to have access to the good things of life.
SRV 101 or SRV 102
SRV 106: Seeing is Believing…Believing is Seeing: The Power of Mindsets*: 3 hours
Mindsets are powerful shapers of action. Our mindsets govern what we see, what we perceive, and how we respond to the world around us and the people we encounter. Intended for those with some exposure to Social Role Valorization, this workshop will examine the power of mindsets, and the sorts of strategies that might help shift the thinking of others around disability, and people with disabilities. Join us for this thoughtful consideration of another wonderful “Gem” of SRV.
*Prerequisite:SRV101orSRV102
SRV 201: Valued Lives: An Invitational Course on Social Role Valorization*: 4 days, Residential, or 6 day online
An Invitational Course on Social Role Valorization is offered as a Residential Certificate Course to select thought leaders and emerging influencers of practice from across India. This is a residential certification
course offered only to select leaders and emerging professionals, family members, and advocates. It is a theory course, and will be followed by opportunities to implement, build on, and use the ideas in practice. It is our intention to continue to build on the community of practice currently using and sharing SRV across India. It should be noted that the materials are applicable to all devalued and marginalized persons in any society, and our presenters and leaders have particular expertise working alongside people with developmental and psycho-social disability toward fuller, richer, better lives.
SRV 202: Creating Home: Best Practices in Residential Services: 12 hours Offered in English
Creating true home for vulnerable people, especially people with developmental and psychosocial disability, is a challenge facing families, government, organizations, people with disability, and advocates. The lessons learned from western service models of group homes and institutional care yield both lessons and cautions in what is being created here in India. Indeed, the residential system of care is being built now, and designing programs that work is essential in securing the futures of so many people and families across India. This two-session workshop examines some of the major themes in crafting home for vulnerable people. Building on some of the concepts taught and learned in Social Role Valorization, we’ll cover using the culturally valued analogue as a
starting point for service design, methods to individualize support, the art of creating home, and practical analysis of the impact of the physical environment, location, size, and groupings of residential services. We’ll touch on the art of home building, and issues of autonomy, rights management, and freedom.
*Pre-requisite:SRV101orSRV201
SRV 203: Ringing in Our Hearts & Minds: A Short Course on Model Coherency*: 3 hours
The concept of model coherency is one of the themes of and for Social Role Valorization (SRV) theory. Yet another fabulous “gem” of SRV, this concept is so helpful when both designing and evaluating a service. How well a service “hangs together” in every way is the big idea behind Model Coherency. This workshop is designed for those who have some training in Social Role Valorization, and those who have also done deep SRV study. Be prepared for hands-on experiential learning, as we take the ideas and put them to work together.
*Pre-requisite:SRV101orSRV201
SRV 301: Introduction to PASSING*: An SRV Practicum: 3 days, Residential
Passing is for those who are interested in deepening their knowledge about the principles of Social Role Valorization. This workshop involves learning to use the PASSING assessment
tool, which looks at the realities of Social Role Valorization in practice. It emphasizes the impact of services on the lives of the people being served and provides an opportunity to craft a vision of a good service and the foundation from which to design relevant and effective support, service, advocacy, and assess service quality. The work of PASSING is done in teams, visiting a service designed to serve marginalized people, meeting the people being served, and conducting interviews with service administrators. The workshop involves extensive personal reflection and analysis, group conciliation, and thought-provoking discussion, All work is conducted under the guidance of an experienced team leader.
*Prerequisite:SRV201
SRV 302: Introduction to PASSING*: An Intensive Practicum in SRV 5 days, Residential
Passing is for those who are interested in deepening their knowledge about the principles of Social Role Valorization. This workshop involves learning to use the PASSING assessment tool, which looks at the realities of Social Role Valorization in practice. It emphasizes the impact of services on the lives of the people being served and provides an
opportunity to craft a vision of a good service and the foundation from which to design relevant and effective support, service, advocacy, and assess service quality. The work of PASSING is done in teams, visiting a residential and a “day” service, meeting the people being served, and conducting interviews with service administrators. The workshop involves extensive personal reflection and analysis, group conciliation, and thought-provoking discussion, All work is conducted under the guidance of an experienced team leader. This is an ideal event for rising SRV educators and implementors.
*Pre-requisiteSRV201
B. Person Centered Thinking and Planning Courses (PCP)
Person centered thinking and planning means that the person with a disability and those who care about them are at the center of all our planning efforts, and we listen and are guided by their hopes, interests, and dreams. In order to work towards true inclusion, we need to listen carefully and assist people with disability and their support circle to craft
a vision of a positive and possible future. Our rich course selection this area will help professionals, organizations and people with disability and their families join the emerging movement across India leading the way for all. In these courses, we’ll help leaders to gain a person-centered mindset, hone their facilitation skills, and fill their toolbox with tools and tactics to put to use in the work of creating futures alongside people.
PCP 101: Person-Centered Thinking: Setting the Stage for Inclusion: 3 hours
This brief course covers some of the basics of person centered thinking, offering ways assure that the people receiving supportive services are guiding the actions, inspiring a vision of a full life, and “doing with not for”. Expect an engaging and enlightening teaser event to inspire you to learn more about person centered method
PCP 102: Planning Tools for Inclusive Practice: Dynamic Processes for Change*: 20 hours
This three day event prepares participants to facilitate three different Person Centered Planning methods. We focus on learning, discovery, and design, as we explore visual and inclusive processes of envisioning the future, and design ways to move forward, and create change. This course is intended to develop awareness in using Social Role Valorization as a strong foundation and using PATH and Personal Futures Planning as creative ways to imagine and plan for change. PATH is a planning process developed by Jack Pearpoint and John O’Brien, to assist people, groups, or organizations to move towards a positive future. Personal Futures Planning uses a foundation of capacity-based planning to design positive and possible futures. These tools, and many others, are are used by people with disabilities and their allies, including professionals, who wish
to explore a different life course, and by associations of people looking to establish a vision along with a strategy to move towards it.
Through presentation, demos, and practice facilitation, participants will be coached and mentored in process and graphic facilitation skills. Graduates of this course are eligible to complete a practicum, for entry into the National Person-Centered Planning Practitioners Alliance.
PCP 103: Person Centered Planning Facilitator Practicum: 8 hours
Considered a practicum for all those who successfully complete PCP102, this course pairs new facilitators with seasoned, master facilitators to support, observe, and mentor together. Completing this practicum opens the door to membership in the National Person-Centered Practitioners Alliance.
PCP 104: Bringing Ideas to Life: The Secrets of Graphic Facilitation: 4 hours
Many person-centered processes rely on creating graphic representations of the vision and pathways towards positive and possible futures for focus persons. Often full of color, graphic facilitation is a way to help people “see”
their ideas, and usually are “live sketched” on wall paper during planning sessions. This takes a complex skill set, but it does not necessarily take a talented artist! Graphic facilitation is all about communication. In this 4 hour session, participants will learn and practice all sorts of methods for becoming a confident and effective graphic facilitator.
National Person-Centered Practitioners Alliance
Person Centered Planning is gathering steam across the country to promote inclusive futures alongside people with disabilities. Over 200 facilitators from across the country have been trained in powerful tools like PATH, Personal Futures Planning, and One-Page Profiles. Many highly regarded organizations from across the country have practiced the art of personcentered planning within their organizations, seeing powerful change in the lives of the people they serve. Families have harnessed the power to create new futures for their sons and daughters, and organizations have envisioned their own positive and possible futures.
The NPCPA hosts practical get togethers to discuss strategies, compare results, share experiences, and to work together to strengthen the community of practice across the country. As well, extensive resources are made available to all members. Completion of PCP102 and PCP103 is required for admission.
C. On Inclusion and Advocacy (INCL)
These courses will inspire you to find new pathways to move towards a world that works for everyone.
INCL 101: On Voice and Choice: 3 hours
Across the world, most valued people have some level of choice and voice in their lives, perhaps not about everything, but about many things. We make many daily decisions, express our opinions freely, and often have leeway to steer our lives in one direction or another, to take some risks,
and to stretch ourselves. Somehow, typical people often feel licensed to control and manage people with disabilities. A quick study of oppressed and marginalized people shows without a doubt that the personal power of devalued people is often tamped down or even completely suppressed. In this study group we will explore the wounding that comes from having your life controlled, often for the convenience of others. Together, we will look at the impact on the people who experience this and explore ways that freedoms can be expanded, and autonomy can be increasingly a part of day-to-day life. We will discuss the growth and development that comes from exercising the freedoms that many take for granted.
INCL 102: The Places and Spaces that Community Happens: A Workshop on Community Mapping: 8 hours
How can we make connections to places, associations, and opportunities that will give the people we support a chance to participate and contribute their gifts, talents, and passions? We teach and talk a lot in our work about supporting vulnerable people to get involved in their communities, yet many of us are unsure how to proceed in our own lives, much less in the lives of others. We invite you to explore community with us in an experiential fashion, using a process of discovery called community mapping. Where does community life take place? Where are the places that people gather together? How can we join authentically and assist others to do so as well? Most importantly, how might life change if we are successful?
INCL 103: Disability is Natural: Reflections on an Inclusive Mindset: 8 hours
This powerful one-day workshop will engage us in reflecting on the meaning of disability within society, exploring our own internal beliefs about living with a disability, and considering what we are learning together. Through brief presentations, facilitated conversations, and creative work, we will increase our awareness of the promise and possibility of a world where everyone has a seat at the community table. This is an excellent
opportunity to build community, establish a fuller vision of inclusion, and create a deeper awareness about aspects of disability you may never have considered.
INCL 104: Disability and Culture: 3 hours
This compelling discussion and presentation on the intersection and impact of Indian culture and disability will deepen your understanding and join together with others who are game for this excellent and important community conversation. Disability is a universal human experience that is found through history and across cultures. The experience of disability is variously viewed as a misfortune, a product of ‘karma’ or fate to be borne stoically, a curse upon both the individual and the family. Persons with disability evoke a complex mix of emotions from disgust and rejection to pity and benevolence and these find expression in the various ways in which society deals with them.
‘Culture’ in its broadest sense, refers to the knowledge, beliefs, values, customs and traditions, ways of doing things that characterize a society. This interactive workshop aims to explore how the experience of disability finds expression in culture in the Indian context, by taking a deep dive into the rich cultural repositories of mythology, folklore and literature as well as popular culture like cinema and the mass media. By engaging with cultural representations, participants will be able to gain a deeper insight into the perspectives and practices of stakeholders and inform their own practices in culturally relevant and attentive ways.
INCL 105: My Voice, My Choice: Strengthening and Building the Self-Advocate Community: 16 hours
Across India, allies are working to strengthen the voice of advocates with intellectual & development disability and establish a strong community of self-advocates across India. Led by persons with disabilities, this session intends to enhance leadership in the self-advocate community across India, where allies and activists are working together in unity.
Every individual matters and everyone have a voice that must be heard. The last decade of the millennium has witnessed the slow but sure beginnings of the self-advocacy movement of people with disabilities that raised the voice for recognition and protection of their human rights. However, not all disabilities are equally represented in the disability movement.
Voices of people with intellectual disabilities are often unheard, drowned or suppressed. To truly be in the driver’s seat of their lives, people with intellectual & developmental disabilities require support, deep listening, and modeling from people with disabilities themselves
INCL 106: Disability is Natural: Reflections on an Inclusive Mindset: 8 hours
This powerful one-day workshop will engage us in reflecting on the meaning of disability within society, exploring our own internal beliefs about living with a disability, and considering what we are learning together. Through brief presentations, facilitated conversations, and creative work,
we will increase our awareness of the promise and possibility of a world where everyone has a seat at the community table. This is an excellent opportunity to build community, establish a fuller vision of inclusion, and create a deeper awareness about aspects of disability you may never have considered.
D. Courses in Foundation of Direct Support (FDS): National Training for Direct Support Practitioners
Historically, supporting people with intellectual & developmental disabilities to live full, meaningful lives with informed choices, has not always been honored. Direct service staff were often expected to be passive caretakers since individuals with disabilities were mostly not seen beyond their disability, their disability was seen as life defining. We are introducing a comprehensive training course intended to change these traditional ways of thinking and to create highly competent and sensitive direct support professionals who can support people with disabilities to lead full, meaningful lives.
Creating a valued and respected workforce of professionals who provide vital, complex, and very personal services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this training takes the first step towards stimulating recognition of direct support work as a professional occupation - a profession that those with the interest and commitment to
work alongside people can aspire to. Grounded on principles of personcentered approaches and Social Role Valorization, the training seeks to develop a cadre of Direct Support Practitioners (DSP) who support and empower people with disabilities to lead rich, valued, and independent lives. As your leading-edge organizations well knows, KII has developed a phase 13-module curriculum that is a combination of theory and practicum, to provide a high-quality direct support preparation program. It is intended for promising curriculum supervisors as well as direct workers in special schools, vocational programs, recreational programs, day centres and residential programs.
Many committed parents and professionals have contributed their knowhow in developing these comprehensive Master Trainer Certification in Foundations of Direct how and expertise and helped develop these modules.
FDS101 A Deeper Look at (5.5hours)
FDS102 Understanding Direct Support Services (2hours)
FDS103 Code of Values & Ethics (1.5hours)
FDS104 Person-Centered Thinking (1.5hours)
FDS105 An Orientation to Social Role Valorization (1.5hours)
FDS201 Promoting Health & Wellbeing (10hours)
FDS202 Positive Approaches to Challenging Behavior (2.5hours)
FDS203 Community Membership (2.5hours)
FDS204 Family Collaborations (6hours)
FDS205 Legal Framework (1hour)
FDS206 Advocacy and Activism (2hours)
FDS207 Sexual Wellbeing (6hours)
FDS208 Promoting (4hours)
FDS209 Taking Leadership (2hours)
FDS 201: Comprehensive Master Trainer Course: Foundations of Direct Support
This comprehensive “train the trainer” course prepares candidates to teach all the above 14 modules of the Foundations for Direct Support Course. Access to high quality materials, topnotch powerpoints, demo videos, and all training material are available to those who complete this course. Held on-line and at least once in person, this expertly managed course gives presenters personalized coaching, supervision, and great guidance as candidates complete classwork, preparation, and live presentations to peers and leaders. Completion of this course gives credentialed trainers access to a private web-based treasure trove of materials, exercises, handouts, a helpdesk, and access to professional certificates in Hindi, Bengali, and English, with Tamil and Punjabi on the way. Typically completed over time in about 3 months, certified trainers join a community of national-level trainers developing a dignified and valued profession working alongside people with developmental disabilities.
E. Customized Employment Courses
Work is one of people’s primary ways of contributing and finding life purpose and self-worth. For many, it defines our identity and is a source of pride. Employment not only provides income and economic independence but also opportunities for rich social interactions and belonging. All
individuals, regardless of disability, deserve the opportunity to be full members of the community where they can live, learn, work, and grow. Yet people with disabilities, especially developmental disabilities, are frequently not considered potential members of the workforce. While myths abound, evidence shows that people with disabilities are more than capable if only we understand their interests, conditions, and contributions.
CE 101: Work that Works: An Orientation to Customized Employment
This short course provides an overview of customized employment, newly launched in India and setting a high bar for strategies to help people with developmental and intellectual disabilities have meaningful work and good careers. The “readiness” model of vocational services have largely failed people with developmental disabilities, and customized employment brings effective processes to bear on discovering vocational interests, pursuing potential community opportunities, and partnering with employers to create work that works for people and businesses. This workshop will give you a glimpse into wholly new ways to approach the world of work alongside people with developmental disabilities.
