Milestones: The New Millennium

2000-2007

Regulated Child Care Study

In the summer of 2000, a study conducted by the Indiana Institute concluded that, in comparison to the national health and safety performance standards for regulated child care centers, children with and without disabilities enrolled in regulated child care settings in Indiana were significantly at risk for injury and illness. An analysis found that approximately 40% of the national health and safety standards were not addressed by these child care centers in Indiana. Since the release of this study, the state of Indiana has rewritten its regulated child care standards to meet approximately 90% of the federal guidelines. Additionally, in-home standards have been rewritten to meet 50% of the national standards, and are currently open for public comment. Finally, rules that govern registered child care ministries in Indiana are in the process of being reviewed.

Civic Participation Project

A collaborative coalition and movement to promote civic participation among people with disabilities was implemented by the Indiana Institute in the fall of 2000 in conjunction with the Indiana Governor's Planning Council for People with Disabilities.

PeoplePower, a media campaign designed to encourage individuals with disabilities to vote, provided information on deadlines for absentee voting, Presidential and Gubernatorial candidate positions on disability issues, and a worksheet on how to make campaigns more accessible. Free local transportation to, and from, the polls on election-day was also organized as a part of this project.

Indiana Inclusion Study

In 2000, a two-year study that investigated the effects of inclusive programs for students without disabilities and students identified with mild disabilities was implemented. Students' academic progress in reading and mathematics were compared using a curriculum-based measure. Study outcomes revealed that students without disabilities educated in inclusive settings made significantly greater academic progress in mathematics. Their progress in reading was not significantly different from students without disabilities who were educated in traditional settings. While a significant difference was not noted, further analysis of progress scores and group means demonstrated a consistent pattern in favor of inclusive settings.

Year three of the Indiana Inclusion Study examined the teaching practices and school structures that existed within inclusive elementary schools in which students with and without disabilities demonstrated high rates of academic progress over the course of the school year. Study results indicated that students with and without disabilities educated in inclusive settings made as great or greater academic gains than students educated in schools that utilized more traditional, pull-out models for supporting students with disabilities.

Home Ownership Alliance

The Institute's Back Home in Indiana Alliance was one of three Indiana Projects (and one of 100 nationally from 2,800 nominations) to receive a “ Best of the Best ” practice award from the federal office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for assisting people with disabilities to obtain a home of their own.

Through the work of the Alliance , individuals with disabilities have acquired their own homes, including those with incomes of 30% of the median (people with disabilities are the most underserved in the mortgage and lending industry. It is estimated that less than 1% of persons with disabilities own their own homes, compared to approximately 67% of all American citizens).

Family and School Partnerships

In 2001, calls from family members to the Indiana Institute consistently indicated that families were becoming more frustrated with their school and the IEP process. Likewise, school personnel indicated that families were being unreasonable in their demands and expectations. This increased frustration by both parties prompted a statewide survey of families and school personnel by the Indiana Institute's Family and Individual Resource and Support Team (FIRST).

The survey was designed to identify problem areas within the special education process and also show strengths that may exist in the family-school relationships. Survey results led to the implementation of a Forum on Family and School Partnerships. Forum participants included family members, general and special education administrators and personnel representing elementary, middle, and high schools from throughout Indiana. In addition, agency representatives from the Indiana Center for Family, School, and Community Partnerships, Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services, Indiana Parent Information Network and IN*SOURCE were invited.

Forum participants were asked what they thought the purpose of the Forum was. After some discussion, the group decided that the overarching question to address was: “How can schools and families build partnerships so that each child continuously improves?”

Results of the Family School Collaboration Survey and the Family and School Partnerships Forum were used to design training and technical assistance to facilitate more positive approaches to family and school collaboration and communication.

CAPE Grant

In December of 2001, a multi-faceted initiative between the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, the Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC), the Indiana University School of Education, and the Indiana Institute was established to build community learning with an emphasis on family involvement and community literacy for children, birth through age 18.

Supported by a five million dollar grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the four-year Community Alliances to Promote Education (CAPE) project, supports three education-oriented initiatives that impact Monroe County 's 11 townships.

Initiative one created four family resource centers to provide early intervention and educational support for families with newborn and preschool children. Initiative two supports 10 elementary schools to develop and offer comprehensive child and family literacy programs. Initiative three funds 30 community asset-building grants aimed at middle and high school students with a focus on healthy development and educational success.

Indiana Day and Employment Services Outcome System

In 2002, Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation Services and the Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services asked the Indiana Institute to develop a data system to replace the Indiana Community Employment Reporting System. The new system was designed to provide better information about the outcomes achieved by individuals with disabilities receiving services as well as their service providers. The data collection system was simplified in an effort to reduce data collection burdens on service providers to increase the response rate. Additionally, data is collected on an individual service recipient basis rather than at a program level, special studies can be implemented on targeted topics, and statewide and regional employment outcomes can be measured.

Service Learning Project

A core value of the Institute is that people with disabilities are full, participating, and contributing members of their communities. To implement this core value, the Indiana Institute actively engages in service learning projects.

Through the promotion of service learning, young people with, and without, disabilities are gaining and utilizing the tools to foster greater collaboration and accessibility, and to fight hunger, homelessness, and a myriad of other environmental and social problems. STAR Schools and Learn and Serve programs received technical assistance from the Institute.

Five Learn and Serve programs were housed in special needs classrooms, impacting over 250 community members through their service learning classes. Schools in some 60 school districts offered service learning benefiting hundreds of participants and community members.

As part of the National Service Inclusion Project, the Indiana Institute works to bring the disability community and the concept of national service together to build the capacity of communities to sustain all their citizens, regardless of ability. Currently, people with disabilities are engaging in volunteer activities ranging from neighborhood clean-up projects and book drives to providing testimony on relevant issues, supporting people in transition, building low-income housing, assisting elders in their homes, tutoring, mentoring, teaching peace education, and much more.

Home Modifications Survey

With the aging of Indiana's population and the state's efforts to deinstitutionalize congregate care facilities, the Indiana Institute, with funding from the Indiana Governor's Planning Council for People with Disabilities and the Indiana Housing Finance Authority, authored two surveys in 2003 to address issues of home ownership, fair housing, and home modification for persons with and without disabilities across the state.

The surveys focused on the “state-of-the-art” of home modification activities throughout Indiana . Forty-five public and private home modification and repair contractors, representing services in 91 of the state's 92 counties, completed survey one. An additional survey was distributed to members of the Indiana Builders Association, with 150 responses providing additional important information about perceived barriers to the expansion of home modification and educational needs of the industry.

Survey outcomes resulted in a number of program and policy recommendations at the local, regional, and state level to help improve the status of home modification services in Indiana to enable more Hoosiers to become, and/or remain, independent in their homes and active in their neighborhoods and communities.

Purposeful Technology

In addition to the Institute's Vision Athena video-distance learning send and receive site providing interactive distance learning, an additional meeting facility was fitted with a Polycom videoconferencing system in 2003. System features include interactive distance learning and two-way meeting capability and multicast video streaming.

These multifunction capabilities provide additional distance education teaching and learning opportunities for Indiana Institute faculty and staff as well as representatives from other departments within Indiana University .

Also in 2003, the implementation of wireless technology or WLANs was installed on the Indiana University campus. Wireless technology utilizes the current data network and allows users to maintain a computer connection wherever they are without restrictions to their range of motion.

Milestones: From Place to Purpose…

The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University , Bloomington works to put new ideas and the results of research into everyday practice. These outcomes are accomplished in partnership with other community agencies, people with disabilities and their families, advocacy organizations, state and local government agencies, and other institutions of higher education.

In the summer of 2002, Indiana Institute faculty and staff began a series of discussions about our work culture, our organizational place, and our direction for the future. These discussions continued and have led to a refocusing of our organizational purpose.

The Indiana Institute's work discussions resulted in a new vision and mission statement. These statements reflect the Institute's continued commitment to disability, and include expansion of our role in the context of the broader community (e.g., school, business, church, home, etc.). This led to the following goals:

Foster unique collaborations and partnerships locally, across the state of Indiana , nationally, and internationally;

Invest in ideas and initiatives with a focus on the broader community that encompass housing, employment, community resources, education, post secondary education, and prevention;

Expand our university roles through investment in teaching more graduate assistants and students involved in student advising, university governance, and research activities;

Focus on our own work culture as it pertains to shared leadership, mission, vision, strategic planning, change, visibility and marketing, human resources, and the purposeful use of technology; and

Diversify our sources of funding and other resources.

Effecting change in the context of the broader community has evolved over time in the work of the Indiana Institute. As Helen Keller once said, “To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable.” Thus, the collective vision and mission of the Indiana Institute embraces change by fostering communities that welcome, value, and support the participation and contributions of people of all ages and abilities through research, education, and service.

Joel F. Fosha
Coordinator, Office of Information
and Public Relations

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