2007 Mid-Year Meeting
Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza
Rapid City, South Dakota

May 9-11, 2007

Preparing the Workforce - The Next Generation and Beyond

Meeting Presentations

To view a presentation file, click on the appropriate file name (e.g., KEYNOTE-GETTINGS.ppt). The presentations are in the format submitted by the each panel and/or session presenter.

= Word Document
= PDF File
= PowerPoint Presentation

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Leadership Challenges during Times of Transformational Change

Bob Gettings
Senior Advisor to the Executive Director
NASDDDS

Forces both from within and outside the disabilities field are fundamentally reshaping traditional approaches to organizing, financing, and delivering public services to persons with developmental disabilities. Mr. Gettings identified these forces and comment on the challenges they pose for current and future leaders in the field. He also proposed a set of strategies for successfully managing the change process and thereby affording individuals with lifelong disabilities enhanced opportunities to live meaningful lives as contributing members of their local communities.

KEYNOTE-GETTINGS.ppt (1,617 KB)

Workforce 2020

Amy Hewitt, PhD
Research Associate
Institute on Community Integration
University of Minnesota

This presentation provided data and resources regarding the direct support workforce in 2020. Information was provided that predicts the demand for this workforce in 2020 and interventions and strategies that states can employ to address demand issues.

KEYNOTE-HEWITT.ppt (10,137 KB)

Leadership Development for the Field - Too Important to Leave to Chance

Steve Eidelman
Co-Director
University of Delaware National Leadership Consortium
on Developmental Disabilities

People in leadership positions in our field, both in government and in the private nonprofit sector, are aging and will need to be replaced in the next decade. As a field, we are developing strategies to address this important issue. The results of a study and several strategic efforts, as well as plans for the future, were discussed.

EIDELMAN-LUNCHEON.ppt (309 KB)

SESSION I-A Building a Direct Support Workforce

Being the Employer of Choice

Anne Rieck McFarland
President and CEO
South Dakota ACHIEVE

Creating a clear and positive culture can result in an enhanced ability to recruit and retain the right people. Hiring the right people means we can do a much better job of serving our mission.

MCFARLAND.ppt (2,415 KB)

Karen Smith
Director of Training and Professional Development
Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services

Ms. Smith provided a summary of Delaware's efforts to recruit and retain a direct support professional workforce, and will provide an overview of the University of Delaware Center for Disabilities Studies grant and a taskforce to uniformly credential DSPs.

SMITH.ppt (131 KB)

Promoting and Supporting a Diverse Workforce: Challenges and Successes and the Impact on the Quality of Life for People with Disabilities

Bob Fleming
Advocates Inc.
Framingham, Massachusetts

Stephen Mwangi
Program Manager
Advocates Inc.
Framingham, Massachusetts

Donna Olivier
Waiver Manager/Program Specialist II
Division of Developmental Disabilities
South Dakota Department of Human Services

Jeff Keilson (Moderator)
Vice-President, Strategic Development
Advocates, Inc.
Framingham, Massachusetts

This panel discussion focused in on specific initiatives and the challenges and successes at Advocates, Inc. in promoting a diverse workforce to provide supports to people with disabilities. Advocates, Inc. provides residential, day, and employment supports to 800 people and family, clinical, and emergency services to 6,000 individuals in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The presentation also included experiences in Massachusetts and South Dakota of families and individuals from diverse communities in their efforts to direct their own supports and services and experiences. Specific strategies were discussed as to their success and failures and how supporting a diverse workforce is critical to the quality of life for people with disabilities. Focus was on the Black, Haitian, Asian, Deaf, and Native American communities.

KEILSON.ppt (134 KB)

If You're Ridin' Ahead of the Herd, Take a Look Back Every Now and Then to Make Sure It's Still There

Travis Arneson
Self-Advocate
South Dakota

Are all self-advocates leaders? Travis Arneson's presentation will focus on activating leaders! How to activate the leader within! How to be the wind beneath each other's wing!

Brenda Smith
Parent Advocate
South Dakota

Swimming upstream! Walking a tight rope! Allowing our children to soar! Brenda Smith provided a parent advocate's perspective on leadership.

SESSION II-A Building a Direct Support Workforce

College of Direct Support (CDS) Virginia Partnership Program

India Sue Ridout
Workforce Development Manager
Virginia DMHMRSAS

From a Workforce Summit to the CDS Virginia Partnership Program, attendees learned how Virginia systematically implemented the College of Direct Support statewide and across disabilities. With more than 4,000 learners, the CDS Program continues to grow momentum across disabilities and disciplines. Also, highlighted was the developmental career pathways/ladders that are being developed for direct support services staff within the Commonwealth and in conjunction with CDS VA Program.

RIDOUT.ppt (127 KB)

Vicki Kommes
Staff Development Coordinator
ECCO, Inc.

This presentation looked at how ECCO, Inc. is implementing CDS in South Dakota. Ms. Kommes discussed things that work, things that have not worked, and how they compensated when situations didn't work and they had to move on.

KOMMES.doc (44 KB)

Training Individuals with Disabilities to Be Direct Support Providers

Katherine Foley
Program Director
Attendant Training Program
Linking Employment, Abilities, and Potential (LEAP).
Cleveland, Ohio

Ms. Foley provided an overview of LEAP's Attendant Training programs: Three levels of training for persons with disabilities, to work within the direct-care workforce as home health aides, personal assistants, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and dining assistants.

FOLEY.ppt (128 KB)
FOLEY.doc (36 KB)

Richard Whitmore
Self-Advocate and Personal Care Assistant
Framingham, Massachusetts

Richard Whitmore is a person with developmental disabilities who just recently received approval to provide personal care assistant services for his wife, funded by Medicaid in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mr. Whitmore's wife also has developmental disabilities and her increased medical and other support needs have jeopardized their ability to continue to live together in the home that they purchased a number of years ago or even in another home of their choosing. Richard discussed his new role, the training he received, the supervision and support he receives, and the other supports that have been put in place to allow him and his wife to continue their life together.

Learning to Lead

Steve Eidelman
Co-Director
University of Delaware National Leadership Consortium
on Developmental Disabilities

Becky Hansen
Vice President
Services
South Dakota ACHIEVE

This presentation explored effective techniques in discovering, sustaining, and cultivating leaders within the field of developmental disabilities.

EIDELMAN.ppt (334 KB)
HANSEN.ppt (1,564 KB)
HANSEN-Generation Comparison.pdf (74 KB)
HANSEN-Herzberg's Motivators.pdf (44 KB)

SESSION III-A Building a Direct Support Workforce

Community Staff Training Program Builds Leaders in North Dakota

Michael Marum
Administrator
Disabilities Services Division
North Dakota Department of Human Services

Mr. Marum provided an overview of the North Dakota Community Staff Training Program. The North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities, through a contract with the Department of Human Services, coordinates the training; develops and revises the curriculum; maintains training records; and conducts workshops and conferences. Through a network of 25 regional staff trainers, the curriculum is delivered on-site and tailored to meet agencies and consumers specific needs.

Jane Gallivan
Director
Office of Adults with Cognitive
and Physical Disability Services
Maine Department of Health and Human Services

This workshop described how Maine successfully created a voluntary statewide DSP curriculum and system to support and manage it. Topics included curriculum development, training instructors, administrative procedures, and the use of an Assessment of Prior Learning test out option for staff with prior training and experience. To date, over 4,500 people have received certificates of completion of the curriculum.

SESSION III-B Managing a Nontraditional Workforce

Managing a Nontraditional Workforce

Jean Tuller
Division of Developmental Disabilities
South Dakota Department of Human Services

Scott Pelham
Director of Business Development
Consumer Empowerment Systems
Bend, Oregon

Dan Tanguay
Consumer Empowerment Systems
Bend, Oregon

TANGUAY.ppt (324 KB)

Margaret Theisen
Executive Director
Full Access Brokerage
Eugene, Oregon

Support Services Brokerages in Oregon have a role as Fiscal Intermediary for clients. As such, the hiring of domestic employees by clients is a significant portion of the service delivery system. Current issues, risk management, and benefits of this employment approach will be discussed. Practical materials and resources regarding this were provided.

THEISEN.doc (61 KB)
THEISEN.pdf (1,032 KB)

Changing the Game: Doing Things Differently as a Result of Seeing Things Differently

Christopher Park
Community Living Campbellford/Brighton & CQL Canada

Using examples from 10 years as a Board volunteer of an organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities and from my past life in business, Chris Park showed what it takes to be a world-class organization. "The journey is never dull," he says. At the Community Living organization in Campbellford, Brighton in Ontario, located in small town Canada, they have proven without any doubt that any organization can be a true winner. What is your organization willing to let go of to get where it wants to be?

PARK.ppt (472 KB)
PARK.doc (77 KB)

Brian Salisbury
Director
Strategic Planning
Community Living British Columbia

Community Living British Columbia (CLBC) is responsible for providing supports and services for adults with developmental disabilities and children and youth with special needs and their families. This session discussed the process that led to the creation of CLBC, along with key aspects of the new service delivery model, including how planning support is separated from administrative functions like eligibility determination and contract management and resource allocation. This model is committed to enabling individuals and families to gain greater control over their lives and will provide opportunities for support workers to engage in new roles and activities that promote citizenship.

SALISBURY.ppt (470 KB)
SALISBURY.doc (77 KB)

SESSION IV-A Building a Direct Support Workforce

National Core Indicator Panel Discussion: Data on Workforce and Staffing

Valerie Bradley
President
Human Services Research Institute
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cliff Mikesell
Administrator
Wyoming Department of Health
Developmental Disabilities Division

Ron Sherman
Manager
DDD Rates and Reimbursement
Aging and Disability Services Administration
Washington Department of Social & Health Services

Sarah Taub
Senior Policy Specialist
Human Services Research Institute

Chas Moseley (Moderator)
Director of Special Projects
NASDDDS

Among its many projects, the National Core Indicators (NCI) program collects cross-state data on performance indicators related to provider staff stability, including turnover rates, vacancy rates, and average length of employment. NCI project staff presented FY 2005 data reported by seven states, while state representatives provided updates on progress in their states in this panel discussion.

BRADLEY-MOSELEY-TAUB.ppt (124 KB)
SHERMAN.ppt (1,899 KB)
SHERMAN-NASDDDS.doc (153 KB)
SHERMAN-Provider Response to Questions.doc (171 KB)

SESSION IV-B Managing a Nontraditional Workforce

Real Assistance, Real Services, and Real Supports

Patti Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Neighbours, Inc.
Highland Park, New Jersey

In 2002, the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities introduced a new way of offering services to people with developmental disabilities. This new system, Real Life Choices, provides assistance, services, and supports that gives individuals what they actually want and what works for them and enables self-direction. Now that people are using their individual budgets to hire their own staff or contract with providers of their choice, creating the capacity to meet their needs has provided the newest challenge. Ms. Scott discussed the approaches and strategies New Jersey used to create the kind of provider capacity that enables citizens with disabilities to have the chance to live a full life within their community.

Bill Kiernan
Director, Institute on Community Inclusion
University of Massachusetts - Boston

Angela Rapp Kennedy
Project Coordinator
State Employment Leadership Network (SELN)
NASDDDS

As states expand integrated employment options for individuals with developmental disabilities, they face a number of significant challenges in recruiting and maintaining job coaches and other key staff. Successful strategies for meeting workforce needs cut across service and support options and include the effective collaborations between the state developmental disability agency, the state vocational rehabilitation agency, One-Stop programs, and community resources, as well as focused staff development and training. This session discussed some of the strategies used by states participating in the State Employment Leadership Network (SELN) program to meet workforce needs and build their capacity to provide customized on-site support to workers in integrated employment.

KIERNAN.ppt (111 KB)