Cambridge’s Inclusion Initiative

• What Got Us Started?– History within Department– Grant Opportunity– Parent/Advocate Complaint

• How Did We Go About it?– Task Force of Cross Program Line staff and Managers– Mandatory meeting for all full-time and many part time

staff– Used Staff with positive experiences to communicate– Kept Talking about it in diverse settings

• What Were the Critical Steps with Staff?– Surveying Staff about their issues and concerns– Designing Trainings that were responsive to survey– Surveying Staff again about how it was going– Using Peer influence– Seeing City Leadership took this seriously

• What Were the Budgetary Challenges?– Getting $ for Inclusionary Specialist– Realigning training dollars– Small pool for enhancing staff/child ratios– Kids’ Council policy effort enhanced chances

• How Is It Working?– Resurveying Staff this month

– Inclusion Specialist in high demand

– Mailed brochure to every family

– New families finding us

• What are the Implementation Challenges?– When do we say no?

– How do we ensure that staff are really getting support

– How do we ensure that all children/youth well-served

– Collaboration with the School’s Office of Special Ed

– Keeping focus and energy as new initiatives emerge

• Next Steps– Build Family Advisory/Support Group– Enhance Relationship with School Special Ed– Focus on older youth-mentoring grant– Find more resources