Mary Kealy, C.E.O., of Brothers of Charity, Clare, Ireland, has become an internationally known resource for her leadership in changing the structures, services, and attitudes of a long established organization to a best practice agency focused on inclusion and interdependence: 

During the past four to five years the Clare Services has undergone a radical change in how we provide support to people with intellectual disability. Our focus has been the transformation of our service from one which supported people in segregated group settings to one where individuals are supported to access opportunities, services and supports which enable each individual to live a ‘real life in a real place'.

The traditional approach created a ‘disability world' where individuals with intellectual disability were placed with ‘one of their own kind' resulting in little opportunity to experience life opportunities, fulfil valued social roles or experience a quality of life in their local communities.

Individuals with intellectual disability share the same dreams and aspirations as everyone else. They want to access education, choose a career, go to college, have a real job with real pay, be supported to follow their interests, live in a safe affordable housing no different to the housing that everyone else enjoys; to be valued and make a contribution to the wider community.

In order to change from supporting people with disabilities in congregated, segregated settings we have undertaken a number of initiatives in County Clare to enable people to have valued and inclusive lives with meaningful relationships in their local communities. We no longer build special day centres, group homes, training centres and respite facilities and instead use our resources to create opportunities for people to build, create and maintain lifestyles of their choosing and self determination.

The Clare services have been successful in this venture by using the approach of ‘one person at a time' which has meant no additional financial costs, change is incremental, and has enabled quality outcomes for each individual. We have built both individual and organisational capacity through our involvement with Dr. Michael Kendrick from the USA who is mentoring us through the change in addition to networking the Clare services with organisations worldwide who continue to be successful in individualising supports and services for individuals with intellectual disability.

Mary will be speaking about leadership, the conditions which made change necessary, how that change occurred one person and one family at a time, as well as internally within the organization and what the results have been so far.   

This is a workshop for anyone looking for alternative ways of supporting inclusion as well as those interested in agency change from any vantage, from friends and family, to agency leaders and those in government.   Mary is an approachable, realistic, experienced leader with lots to share and this is a rare opportunity to spend time with her.