Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING SUMMARY
June 3, 2003
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Room A, NEW SRS Learning Center
2600 SW East Circle Drive South, Topeka, Kansas

Note: If you were unable to participate in the June meeting and want the packet of information distributed at the meeting, please contact Patty Black Moore.

Welcome and Introductions

Kathy Olson welcomed all advisory committee members. Two new members were introduced to the committee: Anne Hull, Parent Advocate and Executive Director of Heartstrings, Peggy Shear (replacing Jason Rudolph), Executive Director of Bethphage (now MOSAIC). Kathy also facilitated a review of the agenda

Credentialing and Apprenticeship

Gary M. and Bobbie K. (DSNWK) and Marianne Taylor (HSRI) presented the progress and recommendations of the Credential Affinity Team (CAT) to the whole Kansas Advisory Committee. They also facilitated small group discussions and decisions around the credentialing and apprenticeship framework and DSP entrance and exit requirements for the tiered credential levels. The team scheduled another meeting to complete the credentialing and apprenticeship framework on July 17th. Further details will be sent to all advisory committee members from Marianne Taylor and Patty Black Moore.

Refinement of Kansas Intervention Action Plans

Traci Melte (Lakemary Center, Inc.) and John Sauer (University of Minnesota) facilitated small group discussions and report outs related to further clarification and development of the work begun in March, 2003 on the Kansas Priority DSP Workforce Change Interventions. Read the small group discussion results by reviewing the document, Kansas DSP Workforce Intervention Action Plans (see your information packet).

Celebrating our Progress

Sarah Williams facilitated a large group sharing of individual organization’s progress on the implementation of agency workforce development plans. Review the organization’s summary progress reports in the document, Kansas Organization Updates (See your information packet)

Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities

Shelly May (Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities) discussed the possibility of writing a grant in response to the Center on Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Request for Proposal entitled, Demonstration to Improve the Direct Service Community Workforce to Support the Needs of People with Disabilities in the Community. Several groups, including at least the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, SRS, and Interhab, will work together on designing and writing the grant. Shelly shared the following “wish list” of areas to include in the grant proposal:

• Purchase the College of Direct Support for use by entire state.
• Expand the online services, ads, and other PR and Marketing features now being developed and maintained through Interhab.
• Make sure the Realistic Job Preview (the new video being developed now and other additional approaches) for the DSP workforce is placed on the KCDD website.
• Expand the workforce development initiatives, now being developed for the DD community, into other fields (e.g., mental health, TBI, etc.).
• Create a statewide pool of DSPs from which to recruit.
• Develop regional training sessions to focus on consumer-directed community services (CDCS) to help families learn about recruiting, retaining, and training DSPs to work with family members with disabilities.
• Develop creative ways to help DSPs with such areas as: improved wages and benefits, tuition reimbursement, health insurance ((and other insurance) pools, credentialing costs, etc.
• Collect and analyze data related to statewide workforce development issues (e.g., turnover rates, cost of hiring and training, salary ranges, and benefit packages available, etc.).

Sherri Larson (University of Minnesota), after reviewing the accomplishments for the first year of the grant, facilitated a brainstorming session with advisory committee members around what people want to do for a possible second year of the Kansas grant. You can review the results of the brainstorming session by reading the document, Ideas for Year 2 of the Kansans Mobilizing for DSP Workforce Change Project. Sherri and also reviewed the timelines for the second year of KCDD’s DSP workforce grant.

Training of DSPs and the College of Direct

Support Kathy Olson (University of Kansas at Parsons) and Nancy McCulloh facilitated a discussion and demonstration of the customization of the CDS for the state of Kansas. The organizations who are involved with the CDS component of the Kansas project shared their experiences thus far with the CDS. The CDS Kansas Customization Demo was helpful to the rest of the advisory committee. In addition, a number of organizations not in the CDS affinity group volunteered to have staff from their organizations review and provide feedback on the CDS Kansas customization.

Next Steps

Nelda Nelson (Self-Advocacy Coalition of Kansas) reminded Advisory Committee members about the need for Advisory Committee members to volunteer to become a part of the leadership transition process (from project staff to advisory committee members) including: planning and facilitating committee and affinity group meetings, chairing and co-chairing the Advisory Committee, affinity groups, intervention work groups, etc. with technical assistance of project staff. The following people agreed to work with current project staff to help plan the next meeting (contingent upon KCDD’s approval of second year funding) of the advisory committee and participate in discussions about leadership transformation for the second year of the project:

• Shelly May (KCDD)
• Tracy Melte (Lakemary Center) · Anne Hull (Parent Advocate)
• Larry McManaman (Hartford) · Kelly Smith (Self-Advocate, SACK)
• Nelda Nelson (Advocate Mentor, SACK)

The following two meetings are scheduled for July 17th:

• CAT meeting to continue developing the framework for a DSP credentialing and apprenticeship program in Kansas. Current CAT members and any other advisory committee members are invited to participate. Additional material and information will be sent in late June or early July, 2003.
• A “seed” Marketing group (including a “public relations” representative from each project organization and other interested advisory committee members) will review the notes from the Professional Recognition and Image-building intervention group and develop a comprehensive marketing plan.

Thanks to all Advisory Committee members and project staff for your hard work, creative ideas, and solid energy in reaching our goals and achieving our many accomplishments during the first year of the KANSANS MOBILIZING FOR DSP WORKFORCE CHANGE project.