KFI Maine | Your Dreams, Our Support

Gail Fanjoy, KFI's Director of Quality and Innovation, was elected to the TASH National Board of Directors for a three year term beginning in December 2010. TASH's mission is to promote the full inclusion and participation of children and adults with disabilities in all aspects of their communities, and eliminate the social injustices that diminish human rights.

Gail has been a member of TASH since the 1980's and chairs the Community Living Committee. She also serves on TASH's Development Committee and recently completed a term as Co-President of the New England Chapter. Gail will be officially installed at the TASH National Conference in Denver, Colorado in December.

In September 2010, KFI hosted Robbi Williams, the CEO of the Julie Farr group, a trio of self-funded, non-government organizations based in Adelaide South Australia. Their mission is to work to improve the life chances for people living with disability and their families through research, policy development, housing services and grant-giving. Mr. Williams is the National Convenor of In-Control Australia, an initiative that seeks to change the way people with disabilities are supported. Over the past 25 years Mr. Williams has worked in a range of countries and on a range of social issues including disability, mental health, families, ageing, and health.

While visiting with KFI, he was particularly interested to explore how people are supported in ways that are truly personalized, that uphold the person's control of their life, that anchor the person as an active citizen in the life of their local community, and which uphold the person's potential. He was also interested in how KFI moved to this from more traditional, congregate supports, and how KFI's commitment to personalized supports survives in the face of funding cuts, leadership changes, and other threats to progressive services and supports.

Jim Meehan, Executive Director, received an inquiry from a project director in Wisconsin to serve as mentor to provider organizations that want to change the way they deliver vocational services. This mirrors our effort under the T-TAP grant, and in fact, three of the other mentor organizations from T-TAP are involved in the Wisconsin effort. In addition to Jim, KFI's vocational team is ready to assist in ways that will be helpful to the organizations that wish to change. KFI's strong vocational team and the relationship KFI has with forward-thinking vocational efforts – and in particular our connection with the Institute for Community Inclusion – is another terrific result of Sally Sweeney's efforts during her 30+ years with KFI!

Jim is currently mentoring several organizations in Wisconsin and has ventured there a number of times during the summer and fall months of 2010.

Gail Fanjoy was invited to present at the 6^th National Organizational Change Forum in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 22^nd and 23^rd, 2010. The forum, designed to be interactive and action oriented, shared state and national systems change strategies to develop "Employment First" agendas. The Forum offered four strands that addressed organizational leadership and management, inclusive employment best practices, policy and systems change, and transition from school to careers. Each session was designed to share current best practices and to engage participants in discussions about how to move forward with positive change. Two Town Hall meetings provided opportunities for state teams to meet, plan, and share "Employment First" initiatives in their states and to learn from others.

Gail presented in the organizational leadership and management strand and talked about KFI's transformation from a traditional, center-based agency that offered only sheltered work opportunities to a progressive community support provider that assists people with disabilities to work in real jobs in the community. Gail also participated in a roundtable discussion with other senior managers attending the conference and fielded audience questions about KFI's revolutionary shift in services.

Lynnae Ruttledge, Commissioner, Rehabilitation Services Administration, Department of Education, was the featured Keynote Speaker. Dan O'Brian, Acting Associate Commissioner, Office of Employment Support Programs, Social Security Administration was the featured lunch speaker.