February 2002 University Reporter

By Leigh DuPuy

image of gora and kiernan What is the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI)? Some may not be familiar with the institute’s far-reaching national activities and fourteen-year affiliation with UMass Boston because ICI has been based at Children’s Hospital. This will soon change. The university has been awarded $3 million in new grants this fiscal year for the institute’s activities, and the national center will relocate their offices to UMass Boston by 2004.

“Our focus is to figure out ways people with disabilities can participate in everyday activities and all aspects of the community,” explains Bill Kiernan, the director of ICI. A national center for services, information, and research, ICI seeks to foster inclusion, increase awareness, and change attitudes about disability issues. “Seven out of ten people with disabilities who are seeking employment in the labor market are out of work,” says Kiernan, “There are perceptions out there that people with disabilities can’t work.”

ICI helps change this reality with a wide range of initiatives that focus on providing clinical and evaluative services, technical assistance and training, employment services, research, and school and community outreach. To fund these many projects, the institute has received numerous grants from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, and the Corporation for National and Community service, to name just a few. In addition to this fiscal year’s grants, ICI has received more than $2 million in previous awards for initiatives at the university. With the most recent grant from the Department of Labor, $1.2 million for five years, Kiernan and the institute will develop a national disability technical center at the university to help increase the employment of adults with disabilities.

Thus far, ICI has led a dual existence at Children’s Hospital and UMass Boston. While the institute’s affiliation with Children’s Hospital will not change, more than 80 percent of its activities will occur under the university umbrella. “The move will help us focus our services on an entire life-span of people with disabilities, not just on children,” says Kiernan. “The move to UMass Boston will help us work more closely with students.”

“We are delighted to welcome the institute to the university. They have a fabulous record of support for their one-of-a-kind work with people with disabilities. Their existing collaborations with the Graduate College of Education are extensive, and we can expect great future initiatives from this relationship,” says Chancellor Jo Ann Gora.

The institute has worked extensively on adult training and technical assistance with both doctoral students at the Graduate College of Education (GCOE) and continuing education students. Kiernan has been partnered with GCOE to help educators address all unique learning skills of children, those with disabilities and those without, and to propose the implementation of a new curriculum for Massachusetts schools which includes the education of all students in their natural school and classroom settings.

Community outreach is also very important to the institute. ICI consults with seventeen community-based minority organizations, providing guidance on how to increase their ability to service people with disabilities. “Different cultures interpret disability differently,” explains Kiernan. “Some cultures treat a person with a disability as ‘special,’ others try to hide them. Neither approach enables them take advantage of the services out there.”

Another new initiative here is the national service inclusion project supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service. With a grant of $1.5 million, the project leaders will implement a program of training, technical assistance, and dissemination to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in volunteer and community service.

With many other initiatives and projects underway, the institute has made great progress in the landscape of inclusion and acceptance in the community for people with disabilities.

Image: Bill Kiernan, director of the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI), met with Chancellor Jo Ann Gora to discuss ICI’s transition to UMass Boston. (Photo by Harry Brett)

Institute for Community Inclusion, A National Center, To Move To UMass Boston

Image: Bill Kiernan, director of the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI), met with Chancellor Jo Ann Gora to discuss ICI’s transition to UMass Boston. (Photo by Harry Brett)