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University Personnel Preparation Programs
Careers
in Community Services
What are Community Services? There are numerous opportunities to work
with people with disabilities in a variety of community agencies. People
in community services may work for public agencies, often called comprehensive
care or community mental health centers, or for a variety of private organizations.
Some community organizations trace their roots back to parent efforts
to provide services for their children with disabilities. In other cases,
state government established some community agencies. Some agencies attempt
to be comprehensive, providing a full spectrum of services to people with
a variety of disabilities. Others are highly specialized, providing a
narrowly defined group of services. Just like any other sector of the
economy, these organizations can range from small "mom and pop"
operations to large national corporations. In this discussion, we are
not going to try to explore all the possible options, but we will try
to give an overview of the basic job categories that may be available
to someone who wants to work in this field.
In the field of community services as a whole, there is a rather extensive
career path. An individual can move from being a direct care worker in
a community group home to becoming an executive of a large organization.
However, some individual organizations, because of small size or limited
scope of service, may have relatively few opportunities for advancement.
It is important to note that many of these job categories are relatively
new. After all, community services for people with disabilities were almost
non-existent 30 years ago. Through the 1970s, institutions were often
the sole source of services for people with disabilities. Public outrage
over the abysmal conditions that existed in most institutions and parental
advocacy have led to massive growth in community services. Today the number
of people in institutions has decreased dramatically and in some states,
there are no longer any large publicly funded institutions. This movement
away from institutions has not always been orderly and as a result, a
career path for workers in the system has taken some time to emerge.
What are the actual jobs? Some of the jobs available in community service
would fall under the following eight general categories.
Case manager or service coordinator. People in this role
usually work for community mental health organizations or sometimes for
private agencies. They work with the person with a disability and their
family to assure that they have access to all needed services.
Sheltered workshop staff. Staff in sheltered workshops
supervise individual disabilities that are employed there. They are responsible
for job skill development and sometimes involved in teaching daily living
and other skills.
Group home staff. Group homes can range in size of anywhere
from 3 to 15 people. The staff may actually live in the home or work on
shift basis. They are responsible for supervising the residents and sometimes
for home maintenance and meal preparation. Often, they are actively engaged
in teaching the residents skills they need to live more independently.
Residential staff. In addition to group homes, there
are a wide variety of residential arrangements for people with disabilities.
These are distinguished from group homes by not having a relatively large
group of people all living under the same roof. In such programs, the
staff usually lives in their own apartment and are available on-call and
to drop in to see how things are going for the residents.
Supported living staff. Supported living is different
from other models of residential services in that it emphasizes ownership
of the home by the person with a disability. The work of supported living
staff is highly individualized and negotiated based on the needs and preferences
of the person with a disability.
Personal assistant. People in this role perform those
tasks that the individual who has a disability would normally do for himself
or herself if the person had no disability. Again, this is a highly personalized
arrangement that is individually worked out with the person with a disability.
Job developer. This role is part of the new system of
vocational services that offers an alternative to sheltered programs.
People in this role work with businesses in their communities to identify
employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Often the emphasis
is on tailoring a particular job to the unique characteristics of a specific
individual.
Job coach/employment specialist. This job is also part
of the community-based model of vocational services. Job coaches work
with people who have a disability and employers to develop work skills
and support success in typical work settings.
Increasingly, there is an emphasis on service coordinators, supported
living staff, personal assistants, job developers, and job coaches as
the career directions for the future. These roles are more consistent
with individually planned services and supports. This is based on the
fact that these roles place a greater emphasis on supporting people with
disabilities so they achieve independence, productivity, community inclusion,
and self-determination. Many people in the field have begun to acknowledge
the skills and responsibilities of community service workers. This is
reflected in new terminology that is used to describe many of them as
direct support professionals.
Education Requirements
Traditionally “direct line workers” who interact directly
with people with disabilities were often seen as "paraprofessionals"
requiring only a high school diploma. Typically, managers in such organizations
are required to have at least a bachelor's degree and often the Masters
degree in some relevant field such as education, social work, or psychology.
As expectations for people in the direct care role have increased, organizations
are frequently looking at higher entry-level credentials such as an associate's
degree or a bachelor's degree. However you should be aware that you will
still find a great deal of variation around the country and even from
agency to agency in the same community. Only in the last few years have
national organizations developed lists of required skills for workers
in various community service roles.
Academic Programs
As the field of community services has become firmly established, community
colleges around the country and some four-year institutions have begun
to develop specialized programs for community service workers. Some examples
of these programs are listed below.
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System offers an
Associate Degree in Human
services. This program prepares individuals for entry-level
positions in agencies and institutions that provide social, community,
educational and mental health services.
Minnesota has developed the Community
Supports Program as a comprehensive educational program for
professionals who support people with developmental disabilities. The
CSP offers an 11–credit certificate program and a 48–credit
diploma program at several sites around the state.
McDaniel College in Maryland offers a Master
of Science Degree in Human Service Management to prepare
middle- to upper-level managers for community-based programs for people
with developmental disabilities. It integrates work experience in a community
service agency with graduate course work.
At the University of Kentucky, the Interdisciplinary Human Development
Institute offers a Graduate
Certificate in Developmental Disabilities. The purpose of
this Graduate Certificate is to prepare professionals from a broad range
of disciplines to play a leadership role in providing services and supports
for people with developmental disabilities and their families.
General Information
What do these workers actually do? Direct support professionals (DSP)
provide guidance and support to people who need help to be self-sufficient.
DSPs view their job as a profession that demands complex skills and knowledge,
ethical judgment and the ability to create relationships of trust and
mutual respect.
The following web page summarizes the facts about this emerging profession:
http://thearc.org/faqs/dsw.html.
Direct support professionals are known by a variety of job titles: residential
counselor, personal care attendant, job coach, para-educator, program
manager, direct care provider, and many others. An association of direct
support professionals has established its own national organization, the
National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals.
The organization's website contains practical information of use to individuals
who provide residential, educational, and vocational services to persons
with disabilities. Within this web site you can find state-of-the-art
information of use to direct support professionals, trainers and supervisors
of direct support professionals, policymakers, and researchers seeking
to ensure that quality direct care services are available to all persons
with disabilities.
Options in Community
Living in Madison, Wisconsin is an example of an agency where the
staff sees themselves as direct support professionals. They believe that
every person has the right to live in a home in the community as an active
and accepted member of the community. Options' mission is to provide support
and coordinate services to enable adults with developmental disabilities
to live in their own homes. Options employees provide a wide range of
assistance to individuals being supported by Options. Responsibilities
may include personal care, home chores assistance, companionship, and
assistance in participating in community life. These positions vary from
part time to full time, and include benefits at 30 hours per week of employment.
Not all direct support professional work in the area of residential support
nor with people with developmental disabilities. Kristen
is a job coach at an agency for people with serious mental illness.