Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING SUMMARY
March 4, 2003
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Room A, NEW SRS Learning Center 2600 SW East Circle Drive South, Topeka, Kansas

NOTE: Due to an ice storm, the number of advisory committee members gradually declined throughout the day and the meeting was cancelled early, about 4 PM

Welcome and Introductions

Amy Hewitt, co-project director welcomed all advisory committee members. Three new members were introduced to the committee: Clarissa Ashdown, Program Administrator with SRS Community Supports and Services, (replacing Lizz Phelps), Phyllis Gabaeur, a Direct Support Professional from Lakemary Center, and Sheila Simmons from Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities.

Are We All on the Same Page?

To ensure that all members of the advisory committee had an opportunity to ask questions, seek clarification, and to gain a common understanding about the project, the group reviewed the Kansas Project’s mission, goals, expectations, and structures. Amy Hewitt spent some time restating the project’s mission and goals, responding to questions, and facilitating discussion about concerns and issues.

Creating a Vision for the Kansas Project

Larry McManaman, a representative of the Vision Subgroup, shared the process used to create the document A Vision for the Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change Project. He facilitated a lively discussion and the group reached an agreement on a revised document titled, A Vision for the Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change Project (located in your packet for the June 5th Advisory Committee meeting).

Celebrating our Progress

Amy Hewitt facilitated a large group sharing of individual organization’s progress with the development of their agency workforce development plan. The following is a list of organizations and their summary progress reports:

1. Creative Community Living (CCL)-Ron Hammock, Executive Director, reported:

• CCL decided to develop a mentoring/socialization program because the baseline turnover rate showed that there was 69% turnover in DSPs during the first 6 months of employment.
• The recruitment and retention training (Removing the Revolving Door) gave me purpose to improve our DSP training over the next 5 years.
• We also will target supervisory training in the future.
• I have a management style that sets very high expectations. We do well around our core values of dignity and respect for the persons to whom we provide support. Our organization is only about 5 years old and through these beginning years, I have used primarily a unilateral decision making process to help guide the agency. Now it is time to move toward a participatory management approach. We will involve the DSPs and Frontline Supervisors in this change process. We are now asking ourselves “What is participatory management?” and “How will we know when it is happening”. We will use a participatory process with all our employees as we work on developing a mentoring/socialization process that focuses on the first 6 months of employment for new DSPs. We know it is important to get “buy-in” from all employee groups that are impacted by this organizational change.

2. DSNWK-We are thinking about where and how we will set up access to the College of Direct Support. We do have some issues around our capacity to have high-speed internet connections and we are working through these issues as an organization. There are some budget constraints related to our use of the College of Direct Support and possible issues related to the use of overtime for the DSPs who will use this system.
3. Hartford, Inc.-Larry McManaman talked about their agency plan involving the intervention of Frontline Supervisory training. They have promoted 100% of their FLS internally from their DSP pool of staff, and therefore, this is already part of their culture. However, this approach means that most of the time, FLS do not get any organized training; it is usually “hit and miss” and mostly informal and inconsistent. We are constructing a whole new training program for FLS, looking for a new pool of potential FLS, and are being proactive in searching out and selecting what DSPs we now have that could become competent FLS.
4. JCDS-Patty Dumovich and Sarah Williams talked about their involvement in the recruitment and marketing affinity group. The target area for turnover with their organization is the first 6 months of employment. They are exploring the referral bonus as one option. They are also exploring the Realistic Job Preview (RJP) intervention so potential employees know better “what they are getting into” before they consider accepting and we do the hiring. The types of RJPs they are considering include a video and/or a picture book at the site/agency level. They are also talking about the process of getting the perspective of the DSP related to what are the positive and the difficult or unpleasant parts of the job. On the marketing side, they are exploring what new pools of potential candidates (e.g., seniors, high school age, etc.) do they want to target.
5. Lakemary Center-Tracy Melte and Phyllis Gabaeur talked about developing a mentoring program for their intervention to reduce turnover. For their orientation program, they are increasing training beyond their current orientation of agency values, policies, philosophy, etc. They also want to improve their existing FLS training and begin a more formal supervisory training program.
6. Sunflower Supports (SS)-Michele Haydon shared with the group how SS is trying to do better with welcoming and providing supports to staff during their first 6 months of employment. They are exploring whether a mentoring or a “personal advocate” program would be best for their organization. They are also looking structurally at their organization in terms of workload equity of their program coordinators, getting the leadership team to focus on meeting management issues, in building a stronger and more effective team, and learning how to “keep it simple”. They have a standard employee advisory council through which they attempt to get “buy-in” for changes from DSPs and FLS and get their input on new policy and educational initiatives, etc.
7. Credential Affinity Group (CAT)-Marianne Taylor reported that she and the representatives of the agencies (DSNWK, Individual Support Systems, and Starkey) have had a number of teleconference meetings exploring the development of a framework for an integrated Kansas Credentialing and Apprenticeship programs. She stated that she and group representatives will review their recommendations for the Advisory Committee during the afternoon session of this meeting.
8. Some organizations did not report. There was no prior agreement or expectation for reporting.

Prioritized Kansas System Change Interventions

The committee reviewed and discussed the results of the Prioritized Systems Change Interventions process that were identified during the January meeting. The advisory committee members who were present formed five teams of 3-4 members each to further discuss one of the top five prioritized interventions and to begin developing goals and an action plan to deal with their target area. After meeting for about an hour, each team representative reported the results or their action planning to the larger group. Read the small group discussion results by reviewing the document, Priority Intervention Goals (see your information packet).

Credentialing and Apprenticeship

Marianne Taylor facilitated and presented the recommendations of the Credential Affinity Team (CAT). However, due to the ice storm, the remainder of the CAT group’s work and Marianne’s presentation were canceled. Marianne indicated that she would contact the CAT members and other interested advisory committee members to schedule additional meetings to continue the work of the group. In addition, she and group members will present and lead a discussion of their work at the June advisory committee meeting.

Remainder of the Agenda

The remaining items of the agenda (planning the June meeting, shifting leadership responsibilities to Advisory Committee members, and the Social Time at the Capitol Plaza) were canceled due to the ice storm.